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Scotland’s Oldest Herbal Dispensary Employs Local Artist to Create ‘Enchanted Forest’ in the Heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town

Posted: 27th September 2016

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Known to many Edinburgh residents for their long and distinguished history of dispensing herbal tinctures and for providing the very best in complementary and natural healthcare, D. Atkinson Herbalist & Napiers Clinic is now also supporting the work of an Edinburgh textile artist.

Last November, owner, Dee Atkinson, asked local artist, Kenris MacLeod, to come up with a plan to brighten up the business’s eight prominent Bristo Place windows in a way that would tie them all together and promote the natural ethos of the shop and clinic. Kenris, whose art is usually created by using freehand machine embroidery, decided to paint an enchanted white birch forest onto the windows – a forest which wraps itself right around the whole premises and changes with the seasons.

So far, passersby have witnessed the forest change from snowy winter into Spring, and from there into lush green summer, complete with blue bells. Now, Autumn has come and the windows are a riot of red, gold and yellow as the trees shed their leaves. Come November, the magical winter woodland will return with deep snowdrifts and snowflakes adorning the branches. Many visitors to the shop and clinic have been delighted by the artwork and very much enjoy seeing the changing of the seasons reflected in the windows.

Kenris’ textile work is strongly influenced by nature, with the majority of her creations depicting trees, so creating this forest for D. Atkinson Herbalist & Napiers Clinic was a great opportunity to work with her subject matter on a larger scale and with different materials, as well as using her artwork to promote a local and much loved business.

Dee Atkinson said: “It’s really great to work with Kenris, a local artist whose work I admire so much. Her beautiful artwork on our windows is exciting huge interest in the shop and clinic.”

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