Introduction I Visiting Information and Events I Room Guide I Further Reading

A Design: The Garden at Drummond from Higher Ground, 1976
Private Collection © June Andrews

In 1975 Andrews made his first visit to Scotland and he returned there regularly during the following twenty years. As a result of his connection with Scotland, Andrews became increasingly involved in the depiction of landscape. In particular, he used certain Scottish landscape subjects as a vehicle for exploring the complex relationship between individuals and their environment.

The Scottish theme in his work begins with two paintings of the formal gardens at Drummond Castle (nos. 63, 66) at Crieff. These strange images represent a world of restrained order and refinement, disturbed by the appearance of four enigmatic figures wearing animal costumes. In some ways they appear at one with the unreality of the place. At the same time they also look like a modern intrusion, at odds with its history and dignity.

Andrews went on to make a large number of paintings of deer hunting set in a spectacular highland landscape. While his interest in painting the stalkers was partly inspired by a fascination with the behavioural aspects of hunting (which parallels the way the artist stalks his subject), Andrews was also fascinated by the historical connections between this activity and the timeless landscape in which it takes place.

The extent of Andrews's examination of his own behaviour in his work is evident in the fact that, of the four large stalking paintings, three depict the artist himself in the act of stalking. Aware that he knew what it felt like to stalk, but not what it looked like, Andrews commissioned a photographer to follow him. The paintings are based on the resulting photographs.

Along with these four magisterial paintings, a selection of smaller works are included. A number of these, such as 'Give me the Rifle. . .!' 6.30pm, 17th October, Glenartney 1991 (no.75) are imaginative and dramatic reconstructions of specific experiences, completed in the studio after the event.

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