The view here looks across Gladhouse Reservoir to the Moorfoot Hills in Midlothian. We know this work was important to Gillies as he painted it into one of his last extensive oils, Interior of Studio, Temple.
Winter Thaw can be read as Gillies’ summation of humanity’s place in the landscape of time. The three strata of sky, hills and water are painted in a harmony of greys with just the faintest of borders separating them. Are we in an ice age here? Perhaps tellingly, this work was painted in his college studio overlooked by Edinburgh’s Castle Rock.