RSA Scottish Art
Between Raeshaw and Carcant on Heriot Water
 | Artist: William George Gillies |
| Title: Between Raeshaw and Carcant on Heriot Water | |
| Year: c. 1968 | |
| Medium: oil on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the RSA | |
| Description: William George Gillies was strongly attached to Scotland and almost all his landscape paintings depict views of his native country. This painting depicts a view in the Borders, just off the A7 beyond the village of Heriot. It is called Between Raeshaw and Carcant on Heriot Water.Gillies has abandoned most of his earlier landscape traits in this painting. Gone are the strong lines and decorative pattern-making characteristics of the landscapes of the 1950s and early 1960s. Instead this is a much quieter and more restrained vision. He still uses all his favourite elements found in his paintings of the Borders region: a hill, a copse, and a meandering burn, but they are no longer painted flatly as if part of a decorative backdrop, but more as a snapshot of a bold stately hill proudly portraying itself against a fluttering sky. This hill has presence due to the amount of detail Gillies has included which allows you to feel the gradient of the slope. Uncharacteristic depth and perspective is formed by the brook tapering in from the foreground and the line of trees disappearing into the skyline. The colour scheme is brighter, fresher and has a more optimistic feel. Light is reflecting back off the surface of the hill.The painter is allowing the viewer to participate in an experience. You can almost feel the breeze in your face and the sound of your breath as you walk towards the steep hill. | |
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