Galloway Landscape

Bill Johnston studied at Edinburgh College of Art and was noted as a painter of birds and animals. During the 1920s he developed a line of painted ceramics under the brand 'ZOO' pottery. His future wife, Dorothy Nesbit, came to Kirkcudbright around 1918 to attend summer schools arranged by Jessie M. King and E.A.Taylor, and Bill soon followed.   The couple were regular visitors to the town during the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1940 moved there permanently. Bill Johnston opened the first craft shop in Kirkcudbright, in Castle Street. It was called 'The Crafts' and here he sold his paintings, painted ceramics and a variety of painted woodwork items.   Johnston's painting output was large, and ranged from repetitive, small souvenir views of Kirkcudbright and the surrounding district, to large watercolours such as this view of Galloway's rural landscape. Like the Sassoon family, the Johnstons had a hut at Carrick, on the coast near Gatehouse-of-Fleet. The viewpoint of this painting appears to be from the Borgue countryside behind Carrick looking across Fleet Bay to the low peak of Cairnharrow.