First an architect, then a painter

till in Edinburgh today, I went to the exhibition of watercolour paintings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the Dean Gallery. The quality varied enormously, but some of them, particularly those of small towns and villages in the south of France, were stunning.

Mackintosh compressed perspective (sometimes sloppily but usually like a telephoto lens) and combined views to produce almost flat patterns. Fields in the foreground and hills in the distance have the same tonal values, and rock formations and reflections have more detail than buildings. His paintings, quite unusually for landscapes, are square, which adds to the feeling of flat pattern.

The exhibition is on until early February, and I urge you to go if you can. If you can't, have a look at La Rue de Soloeil, the Lighthouse, and Port Vendres, though these images are a poor substitute for the originals.