Bring Your Own Baby – Bridget Riley: come along to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art for a fun, relaxed morning planned especially with parents and carers of young children (0-12 months) in mind. Enjoy special offers and family-friendly facilities in the café and sign up for short buggy/baby-friendly art tours for adults of Bridget Riley: Paintings 1963-2015. Gurgling, laughing, crying or screaming welcome as well as lots of informal chat; NGS will even bring some spare nappies! 9.30am-12 noon, Monday 2nd May, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art ONE (enter through café – level access from car park), Belford Road. Free but places for tours are limited – sign-up on the day. Image: Just like Daddy, Moyna Flannigan, 1998 − © Moyna Flannigan.
British Art Show 8 – Artist’s Talk and Screening: Rachel Maclean. Glasgow-based artist Rachel Maclean discusses her work, including new film Feed Me commissioned as part of British Art Show 8. 6-7.30pm, Monday 2nd May, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed. Image: Feed Me, 2015, Rachel Maclean − © Rachel Maclean 2015. Courtesy the artist and Film and Video Umbrella.
Shoreline of Infinity: Event Horizon. An evening of science fiction, with music from Painted Ocean, words from Pippa Goldschmidt, poetry by Russell Jones and art by Monica Burns – plus a mystery movie. 8pm (doors open 7.30pm), Monday 2nd May, The Blind Poet, West Nicolson Street. Free; all welcome. Shoreline of Infinity is a new sci-fi magazine from Scotland.
In Focus: Allan Ramsay by Michael Foye. Susanna Kerr, freelance lecturer, will discuss this marble likeness of the artist in connection with images of his close family – his child, his father, and his first wife. 12.45-1.15pm, Wednesday 4th May, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street. Free and unticketed.
I am writing for myself and strangers*: writing, sculpture… A panel discussion in which art historians Kirstie Gregory (Henry Moore Institute), Sarah Victoria Turner (Paul Mellon Centre) and curator and writer Katharine Stout (ICA, London) consider the relationship between writing and sculpture, 
including art historical research, interviews with artists, and writing as a tool for sculpture. 6pm (refreshments), discussion begins 6.30pm, Wednesday 4th May, Fruitmarket Gallery, Market Street. Free but please register via eventbrite here. (*Gertrude Stein The Making of Americans).
In Focus: Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag 1786 by Benjamin West. The enormous scale and dramatic subject of this painting reflect the ambitions of its American artist and Scottish patron. Benjamin West, a founder member of the Royal Academy who succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as its President, enjoyed an international reputation as a history painter. Art historian Ailsa Turner explores the painting and the context for West’s outstanding achievement. 12.45-1.15pm, Friday 6th May, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.
Bookbinding: as part of Martino Gamper’s Post Forma project for British Art Show 8, book binder Ciara McDermott will be giving practical demonstrations in the gallery and offering a service for members of the public to bring along their own books to be renewed. 12 noon-3pm, Friday 6th May, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, Inverleith Row. Free, no booking required. Also at same times on Saturday 7th May.
Martyn McKenzie: La Mer Du Sud. Featuring a series of new oil paintings based around a practice of intense landscape observation in the South of France, La Mer Du Sud is both a paean to the captivating magic of a sustained engagement with a particular place and an exploration of ‘the painting study’ as process. 
Moving up and down the scale from very small miniatures to larger works, Martyn McKenzie is an artist whose work is characterised by attention to detail and a remarkable patience and commitment. McKenzie graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2012; his piece South Series, featuring 72 en plein air watercolour paintings observing the view from the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition and exhibited in the Mall Galleries, London in 2015. This is his debut solo exhibition. Launch 6-8pm, Friday 6th May, The Sutton Gallery, 18a Dundas Street, then 11am-5pm Tuesday to Saturday. Ends 28th May.
Queen of Swords: Ilona Szalay. A recipient of the ORA Prize (Italian contemporary art prize) and one of six finalists for the highly valued UK Threadneedle Prize in 2013, Ilona’s paintings trace a path through a world of conflict and power play, a place of rigid hierarchy and fierce competition. 
Illona seeks to investigate the tension between protection and control in her work and as a result there is an ambivalence in the images, a questioning of motive/morality,and an examination into our impulses to both create and destroy. The pictures are permeated with a lonely sense of yearning and a poignant straining towards something infinite. Preview 6-8pm, Friday May 6th, Arusha Gallery, 13a Dundas Street; please contact gallery for opening times thereafter. Ends 31st May 2016.
Ian Williamson – Exhibition Launch: the artist will be showing pastels of Leith. Nibbles and bubbly will be served! 7pm, Friday 6th May, Sofi’s Bar, Henderson Street. Exhibition continues throughout May.
British Art Shows: free discussion-led tours of the British Art Show. Focus and content will change weekly. 2-2.30pm, Saturday 7th May, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art ONE (meet at the main entrance), Belford Road. No booking required. Image: Rachel Maclean Feed Me 2015 − courtesy of the artist and Film and Video Umbrella, © Rachel Maclean, 2015.
Portrait Gallery Thematic Tours: The Life and Times of the Tweeddales. Themed tours of the Portrait Gallery’s collection – this month, artist Katharine Aarrestad will consider the life and times of the Tweeddales family through the portraits and paintings in this new display. 2-2.45pm or 3-3.45pm, Saturday 7th May, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street. Free and unticketed.
Portrait Detectives: collect your kit, follow clues and solve a mystery from history! For ages 4-12. 2-4pm, Sunday 8th May, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street. Free and unticketed. Supported by the Friend of NGS. Image © Alicia Bruce.
