In 1987 Howson painted a triptych called The Scottish Trilogy, which was shown in his first exhibition with the Angela Flowers Gallery; it was to be the first of a series of triptychs. Based on George Mackay Brown's poem 'The Scottish Bestiary', this work started off as three separate prints. Howson then decided to paint a triptych on the poem as well, excited by how its subjects - the mouse, the stag and the moth - could be used as a metaphor for life in Glasgow. Alan Jackson, in his book A Different Man - Peter Howson's Art, from Bosnia and Beyond, quotes the artist’s description of this theme. Study for the Bestiary depicts the poet Robert Burns writing 'To A Mouse'.

Peter Howson OBE, born 1958

Born in London and brought up in Ayr, Howson possessed an early talent for drawing, which was encouraged by his art teacher at school. He enrolled at Glasgow School of Art in 1975. However, it was an unhappy experience - he could not do what he wanted to do - and he left at the end of his second year to join the Royal Highland Fusiliers, an impulsive decision that he regretted almost immediately. He left the army less than a year later, and for a further year was employed in a series of mundane jobs. It was a difficult period in Howson's life, but it furnished him with a vast fund of material that subsequently he used in his painting.
In 1979, after three months' studio work at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Angus, Howson returned to Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1981. He enjoyed his final year at school, largely due to the encouragement and teaching of Alexander Moffat, who introduced him to German Expressionism and the work of Max Beckman. Important milestones in Howson's early career were serving for six months as Artist-in-Residence at St Andrew's University in 1985 and being represented in two important exhibitions of the work of selected young artists - New Image Glasgow in 1985 and The Vigorous Imagination at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in 1987. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1993.
Howson's painting is characterized by strong draughtsmanship and even stronger images. In general he depicts a male-dominated world, populated by victim and victimizer (often the victim is also the victimizer), which draws on his experiences of both the army and Glasgow working-class life when he dropped out of Glasgow School of Art for two years. Aggression and depression are recurring themes.
Howson's work is represented in many major public and private collections throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate in London.