Snow on the Hills above a Valley by James Morrison (1932-2020) captures a countryside landscape with a base of wide, sweeping strokes of muted green oil paint, and then small details laid overtop with thin, precise strokes. The details of the trees are captured in black paint, with some droplets of the pigment on the left side, characteristic of small trees from Morrison's other works. The sky is a solid grey tone, with some of the wiped away paint giving a suggestion of haziness throughout the landscape. 

Morrison was a celebrated landscape painter, often depicting scenes from the Scottish countryside. His work often contains a characteristic blurring effect for natural scenes, with muted colour tones as well that contribute to a more serious depiction of a landscape. 

James Morrison RSA RSW, 1932-2020

Born in Glasgow, Morrison studied at Glasgow School of Art under David Donaldson from 1950 to 1954. He taught part-time there until 1958, when he moved to Catterline, near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire. He was visiting artist at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Angus, in 1962-63. In 1965 he became a teacher at Duncan Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. He visited Greece on an Arts Council travelling scholarship in 1968 and has travelled widely in France. In 1987 he resigned as Head of Department to concentrate on his painting. 

Morrison is best known for his panoramic landscapes, particularly of Angus and Canada, many spectacular cloud formations. He is also noted for his paintings of Glasgow's Victorian tenements and terraces, which he started as a student and continued until about 1980.