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Artwork: Usher Hall

Oil on canvas

100 x 130 cm with white box frame

A little girl holds a yellow umbrella and jumps up and down in a puddle while in the background a girl on stilts dances with her partner. For some reason a young boy is playing the cello in the middle of the square. Is he busking? Was he performing in the Usher Hall earlier in the day? Who’s the man twirling the red umbrella in the front and staring directly at you? Who are all these people? What’s their story and how does it end?

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Stories about 'Usher Hall'

A tale of substance and possibility

By: Mon Nom

Created: 2014-01-05 20:25:53 Edited: 2014-01-05 20:25:53

I watch from the fragrant embrace of a blossoming tree as the Square comes alive with performances of the virtuoso. The rich, human voice of the cello reaches a crescendo. A stilted lady pivots faster, a couple pick up their stroll to a brisk walk, a little girl splashes with fervor in her cool puddle and a young boy propels his umbrella as if in transatlantic flight. People appear and disappear but one person remains constant and calm… The sole figure of a man standing guard of the scene with a devilishly red umbrella propped against his shoulder. He twists it off its resting place and theatrically offers me the handle. A magnetic force pulls me forward and I grasp the umbrella out of his hands. He leans in and whispers, ‘This is your key to travel and time. The tree of Eden is your current shelter but taste the riches of Ancient Egypt or find the mythical fire bird in faraway lands. The world is your blank canvas to paint…’

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The Umbrella Tree of Usher Hall

By: rapunzellmo

Created: 2013-10-29 20:59:22 Edited: 2013-10-29 20:59:22

As each strolling pedestrian passed under the shady outstretched branches of the tree, an umbrella fell down, plummeting as though it was a fresh sunripened fruit. Each umbrella bore a label that read 'pick me up and take me away'. Those who stepped over the brolly, or kicked it aside, walked on into the sunshine as before. Every person who paused long enough to inspect their windfall umbrella got the message, and so those rainbow coloured brollyfruits were carried away from the shade of the old tree, all around the Usher Hall and beyond, to be sun parasols today and rain brollies tomorrow, such is Edinburgh life.

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Heaven.

By: Northfield loon

Created: 2013-08-11 06:16:04 Edited: 2013-08-11 06:21:09

Where is this place, am I dreaming or could this be heaven? The last thing I remember was cutting the corner on my bike.But who are these people? I need to get closer to see if I recognise someone maybe the little girl with the umbrella she looks familiar or that man who is staring at me.

The Cello Player

By: trevorjonesart

Created: 2013-08-07 17:26:36 Edited: 2013-08-11 20:05:54

... and he played until his fingers bled! #cello #classical #TCHAIKOVSKY


Categories: Cello player

Stephanie

By: trevorjonesart

Created: 2013-08-01 22:52:23 Edited: 2013-08-02 01:15:01

It had been the hottest summer young Stephanie could remember. She was only six years old but she was really quite proud of her excellent memory and would often surprise her mother by recounting in great detail events that had happened even in the first year of her life. Although Stephanie was only six and she didn’t exactly have much of a reference point she had realised quite early on that her life wasn’t exactly what one would call “normal”. Even today, the fact that she was outside the Usher Hall all alone, dressed in her favourite lilac welllies and pink raincoat and splashing in a little puddle in 28 degree heat caused Stephanie little concern.
 
It wasn’t until the butterflies began to circle repeatedly, over and over and in exactly the same monotonous pattern around her head that Stephanie began to realise that something wasn’t quite right. Perhaps this recognition of the butterfly pattern was the trigger; all of a sudden it became very difficult for Stephanie to focus as it seemed her own thoughts were stuck on a perpetual four second loop. Ground hog day had sped up to Ground hog seconds! What had happened to her photographic memory?! Stephanie was only able to capture four seconds of life and then it was gone.
 
There’s a man with a red umbrella… stop!
There’s a girl on stilts dancing with a young man. Edinburgh festival performers perhaps? … stop!
Who’s that little boy with the American flag umbrella? … stop!
 
And so it went on and on for young Stephanie: Four seconds, stop. Start, four seconds, stop. Start, four seconds stop. Start…
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