Drawing Perspective

This activity is inspired by a painting, titled ‘Dunfermline from the North-West’ which depicts a panoramic view of Dunfermline, as seen from Berrylaw Road (near North Urquhart Farm House). It was painted by local artist Andrew Blair in 1860.

At first glance, the painting is dominated by greenery - with children playing by a burn, a group of women making hay and trees of Pittencrieff Estate (now Pittencrieff Park) blanketing the town. However, look more closely and this painting has many other stories to tell. Let’s have a closer look! To the left of the town centre, amongst the sea of houses, a group of chimneys can be seen blowing smoke into the sky. These probably belong to the Dunfermline Foundry and Pilmuir Works (a linen factory founded in 1849). There is another chimney rising to the right of Dunfermline Abbey - this may belong to Abbey Gardens Works, a linen factory which opened on St Margaret Street in September 1860 (the grounds of the factory are now a car park). To find out more about the painting, please have a look at our blog.

Let’s make!

Getting Perspective book designed by Beautiful Materials Design Studio, Nicola Atkinson & Alan Grieve

How to make some things appear far away and really small? How to draw clouds, buildings and beasties? Inside are some good tips for you all!

Click on the picture to access the booklet.

Berrylaw Project

Beautiful Materials Design Studio invites you to be inspired to create a landscape artwork from the perspective of Berrylaw Hill, Dunfermline. Your creation will be displayed in an exhibition entitled Berrylaw Perspective (curated by Nicola Atkinson and Alan Grieve) in the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum.

This is part of the public artwork ‘Walking in the town as if you were wandering in landscape’ by Nicola Atkinson, artist of the Beautiful Materials Design Studio, takes Andrew Blair’s painting as a starting point, creating a new perspective from Bruce Street as if you were wandering in a landscape.

The old studio of celebrated 19th century Dunfermline artist Andrew Blair (situated at 9 Bruce Street) provides the perfect setting for displaying one of his landscape paintings, ‘Dunfermline from the North-West’. Painted in 1860, the work is in the collection of the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. The painting shows the town from the perspective of Berrylaw Hill. When standing at that vantage point you can see almost the exact same view that he captured in the work.

To find out about painting please visit: www.carnegiebirthplace.com