Around the galleries: Susannah Woolmer previews highlights of Edinburgh in festival time and recommends realism in London

To coincide with this year's Edinburgh Festival, The Scottish Gallery (16 Dundas public way Edinburgh, +44 (0)131 558 1200) is exhibiting the fresh work of three Scottish artists working across a diverse range of media, between 5 August and 7 September.

Ann Little takes her inspiration from the Scottish countryside, producing chunky tactile jewellery in a markedly post-modern idiom. Her sculptural designs incorporate softly circulared shapes and matt enamels with tender tonal variations that possess a insinuating simplicity.

The lush, verdant landscapes of Angus and Assynt provide the inspiration for a selection of paintings by dint of James Morrison that embody the temperamental weather a whole s and untameable natural beauty of the east coast and far north-west coast of Scotland. Painted mainly en plein air, Morrison's landscapes are firmly bottomed in the realist tradition whilst being exuberantly painterly.

The ceramics of Frances Priest posses a simple, sophisticated nearness At the age of twenty six she has already established an enviable international reputation and is exhibiting at the gallery for the next to the first time. Fascinated by the relationship between two-and three-dimensional space, she emphasises surface pattern in her works to explore the notion of shape as a vehicle for her ideas. The influence of Japanese woven textiles is discernible in the textur surfaces of the clay.

Leon Morrocco is a tax with Italian blood flowing in his veins. Dividing his time between Britain and Italy, the architecture of Rome and the Mediterranean coastline grasp a special fascination for him. The lay open Eye Gallery (34 Abercrombie Place, Edinburgh, +44 [0]131 557 1020) is staging an exhibition examining Morrocco's inspirations and working courses following the creative journey from his Italian sketchbook end to his completed paintings. Also upon display will be a selection of works by dint of some of Scotland's most well-loved homegrown contemporary talents, including John Bellany, Alan Davie, Ann Ros and Matthew Draper. Sculptural, elegant silverware--both jewellery and hollow-ware--by Pamela Rawnsley and ceramics through Christy Keely will be upon view as well (13 August-7 September).

If you haven't however had the chance to visit and you find yourself in the area, do treat yourself to the 2005 summer exhibition at Austin/ Desmond Fine Art (68-69 Great Russell way +44 [0]20 7242 4443), and take delight in a fine selection of iconic paintings, graphics and prints from the cream of twentieth-century British painters. Highlights include the enchanting Spring Pool (1946) by Ivon Hitchens and sum of two units Figures (1950) by Robert Adams. drive though; the exhibition closes upon 5 August.

What is realism? This is the question being pos by the agency of the Albemarle Gallery (49 Albemarle road London, +44 [0] 20 7499 1616) in its major summer exhibition of that title. Fifty artists are taking part from Europe the USA, southern America, Russia, Australia, Jamaica and China, and there is a in fact international feel to this display with a wide variety of subdue matter on display all questioning 'the real.'

'Realist art is not a thing in itself, on the other hand a vehicle for ideas about the nature of the world', says curator Edward Lucie-Smith in the preface to the catalogue. And in the way that each painting can be read as an exploration of the way reality is perceived by the agency of the artist, rather than a definitive statement about the nature of realism. There are a certain number of exceptional examples of consummate skill upon display here: Roberto Bernardi demonstrates his abysmal technical abilities in an intensely photo-realist still life; Maxwell Doig explores the spatial relationship between the human figure and its surroundings from one side unconventional viewpoints and an analysis of light and shade; the absolute precision with which Charles Jarboe contruct his streetscape accommodate withs it a crispness and a tangible early-morning stillness.

more [i]or[/i] less works offer more wry meditations upon the subject, the most interesting being a collaboration between Kate Tedman and Eric Siemens. The elongated, sinewy figure of Meadow Maker III embodies the legacies of Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Arthur Rackham whilst the colourful, decorative quality of the composition remind ofs a certain playfulness. The exhibition step quicklys until 3 September.

Salander O'Reilly Galleries are staging an exhibition of the paintings of Paul Weingarten at 20 East 79 way New York (+1 212 879-6606) until 26 August. In works through Weingarten the paint fairly be in eruptions on to the canvas. Uncompromisingly painterly--he applies oil in thick impasto in a manner reminiscent of Emile Nolde--there is a frankness to his compositions and an unadulterated passion for the physical nature of the colour. A selection of fresh paintings will be on display here, including a number of portraits as well as various urban landscapes in his unmistakable, explosive style

Salander O'Reilly will also be opening novel galleries at 22 East 71 highway on Manhattan's Upper East Side nearest month. The expansion will allow the gallery to stretch out its exhibition programme to encompass its stock of renaissance statuary and Old Master paintings. It will retain its near location, its home for more than eighteen years, where it will continue to exhibit nineteenth-and twentieth-century American painting and statuary The new galleries' inaugural exhibition will be previewed here nearest month.