Gillies tended to memorialise, especially in late paintings, and this special oil brings together strands of his life and art. Painted around the fiftieth anniversary of his time in the war its clump of trees references Paul Nash, whose war paintings were a ‘strong private influence’.
The stalk of kail harks back to Gillies’ family kailyard past in Kirriemuir, while the buildings are painted in a cubist style. The whole eerie and surreal scene is lit by a symbolic gibbous moon. This painting was different from any that had preceded it and show the powers of invention Gillies could call upon in later life.