Edinburgh, Scotland – This spring, a fascinating new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery explores the versatile and beautiful drawing medium of red chalk. Comprising some 35 works from the Gallery’s world-class collection, “Red Chalk: Raphael to Ramsay” will showcase a diverse range of exquisite drawings by distinguished artists, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Salvator Rosa, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher and David Allan. The display will feature works which, due to their delicate nature are rarely on show, as well as a number of drawings being exhibited for the first time. “Red Chalk” will be on view at the gallery from February 18th through June 10th. Red chalk was first used for drawing on paper in late-15th century Italy. Chalk is a naturally occurring mineral, quarried directly from the earth then cut into drawing sticks which can be hand-held or chipped into a point and set into a holder. Drawing chalk can also be made, using ground up natural chalk mixed with water to form a paste then rolled into drawing sticks.