Throughout her long career,Winifred Nichotson was concerned with capturing'light, colour and radiance in her work and is best known for her sensitive and joyful flower paintings. In 1920 she married Ben Nicholson and their mutually influential artistic relationship lasted, despite separation,until Winifred's death in 1981.During the 1950s, Winifred made regular working trips to Scotland,:often with the poet, Kathleen Raine. They frequently stayed at Sandaig on the west coast and in the Western Isles. This book, based on personal correspondence and the recollections of relatives, friends and painting partners, examines Winifred's love of Scottish landscape and her fascination with the quality of light created by the everchanging weather conditions.

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1959s Winifred Nicholson made frequent working trips to Scotland, often with the poet Kathleen Raine.This book and the exhibition of paintings it accompanies are the first to focus on this aspect of Winifred"s oeuvre. She felt a deep affinity with the culture of the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland and was fascinated by the quality of light created by the ever-changing weather conditions played out over the Scottish landscape.

Not only did Winifred have a special relationship with Scotland, but she also had a particular affection for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. She knew it in its original home in Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden and frequently visited when she came to Edinburgh. Indeed, the painting ,fake and Kate on the Isle of Wight [plate1] was presented to the Gallery in 1985 by her trustees in accordance with her wishes. It joined Piet Mondrian"s Composition with Double Line and Yellow of 1932, which Winifred had previously owned and which the Gallery purchased in 1982.