The Scottish landscape has challenged and inspired painters for centuries, but does it still? In the 144th Open Annual Exhibition of the RSW, which kicked off 2025 in the RSA Upper Galleries, work inspired by landscape - in the broadest sense - is one of the strongest themes. Whether an artist is lovingly depicting their own patch, like David Johnston’s paintings of the Mearns, or inventing a country of the imagination like Reinhard Behrens, or describing places in the language of abstraction like Dominique Cameron, the landscape is an important inspiration.

RSW President Anthea Gage describes the role of the Society as “upholding tradition, while welcoming in new approaches”, and the show includes a spectrum of work, from the best of traditional watercolour to more experimental explorations. Some of the artists below - including Gage herself - might not call themselves landscape painters in the traditional sense, but place, atmosphere and weather continues to be an important part of what drives them to mark art.

Ruth Nicol RSW, 'Waternish, North from Lusta, Skye'. Image courtesy of the artist.

Robert McGilvray grew up in Glasgow and studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, where he taught for four decades. He stopped painting for about 20 years due to his involvement in teaching and in community and public art projects, and when he returned to it he gradually found himself responding to landscape.

Bob can often be found on his bike looking at landscapes, using memory to record his impressions rather than a camera or sketchbook. “Much of my work explores my personal recollections of light and atmosphere, colour and climate, the haar and the light of the east and the dark hills and islands of the west,” he says. 

He says he explores “themes of abstraction which are rooted in the reality of the landscape”. “Some of my work, like 'The Haar' is dominated by strong, black silhouettes of large land masses contrasted against a background of glowing light of sky and sea. Other works are reminiscent of the flat landscape of the east where the sky meets the sea or the river with an imaginary horizon.”

Robert McGilvray RSW, 'The Haar'. Image courtesy of the artist.

The single biggest work in the 2025 RSW Annual Exhibition is ‘Waternish North from Lusta’ by Ruth Nicol, measuring in at 2 metres by 3 metres. Ruth says: “I’ve always enjoyed working on different scales. I think the enormity of landscape is only ever truly expressed at either end of the scale. Anything in between is very often compromise.”

Ruth describes herself as a contemporary landscape artist and says she has been fascinated by vernacular and architectural features of different parts of Scotland since her childhood holidays in the mining village of Leadhills, where she noticed how the cottages and streets followed the contours of the land.

Her landscapes often capture the marks of human habitation, dwarfed by the enduring sweep of the land itself. The fluid application of acrylic paint allows her to build mingling colours. “To me the only thing more exciting than colour meeting colour is when it is intercepted by black comté drawing lines. Drawing underpins and is included in all of my paintings.”

RSW President Anthea Gage says she never expected to become a landscape painter, but all that changed when she moved to a house beside the sea in Argyll. “The sea is a constant companion in all its moods. Weather causes infinite changes to the surface of the sea and the sky throughout the day. Sometimes it feels like I am sitting on a boat with the sea travelling past.”

The move contributed to a significant shift in her painting, working more expressively on a larger scale. “During the pandemic, I gave some art classes online for family and friends. I was showing them how to work with mixed media and then thought, ‘I’d like to try this myself’.

“I paint much faster than I used to which means the marks I make are looser in order to convey the wildness I love. Watching the sea is mesmerising. I love to see how it’s changed overnight and it so often feels like a personal relationship and lifts the heart. When I paint it I want to capture that lift and ever-changing pattern and light.”

Ann Cowan RSW, 'Rooftops at the Mound, Edinburgh'. Image courtesy of the artist.

When Ann Cowan first came to Edinburgh to study for a Law degree, she didn’t know she had also found the place which would inspire her most as an artist. “I was a student at Old College, which is a stunning setting in itself and features quite regularly in my work,” she says. “Edinburgh is a constant source of inspiration to me.

“You paint what you know and what you love - for me that’s the city, the architecture. My dad was an architect so I suppose my love of buildings goes back to that. Any time I visit a city which has an interesting skyline, I feel inspired to paint, but I think I’ll always come back to Edinburgh.”

Ann loves drawing but is cautious of too much detail. “I want the painting and the colour to be just as important. Using mixed media, I can build up layers in acrylic then use pens and pencils on top. I try to capture Edinburgh in a way that’s joyous, I hope the colour I use and the way I use it conveys the fact I love the city.”

Alison Dunlop RSW, 'Cloud Dance, The Minch'. Image courtesy of the artist

Alison Dunlop says that her distinctive atmospheric watercolours are about trying to capture what she sees outside her studio window in Wester Ross. In 2006, she and her husband moved out of the city and began restoring a derelict croft with views across the Inner Sound and North Minch.
“My watercolours explore that dramatic flux of energy over the Minch, as squalls bear down upon us and sunshine yields to mists and cloudbursts. I suppose I’m also trying to grasp meaning in what I see, to impose my own order on its chaos, in the hope of getting closer to the essence of just what it is that resonates so loudly for me here in this place.

"I don’t find myself painting from nature, from a specific view or moment, but rather I’m trying ‘tune in’ to and distill the energy of the constant changes in the environment here in Wester Ross. Every day, my eye is drawn to the horizon. It sings to me. It always has.”

The 144th Open Annual Exhibition of the RSW at the RSA Upper Galleries ends on February 5th, the online exhibition featuring a broad selection of works from the show will continue on www.rsw.org.uk