Johnstone’s work of the late 1920s was unique in Scottish art in its combination of Surrealism and abstraction. This painting was begun around 1927 and was later reworked, like many of the artist’s early paintings. The underlying curvilinear structure remains from the original version but the drawn lines were added at a later date. Despite the title of the painting, it does not depict Selkirk but only indicates where the work was completed. Johnstone preferred not to paint from nature but rather to combine his experience of nature with his knowledge of art history to ‘produce landscapes of greater intensity and depth. I used my native landscape as a basis of a free development of movement and direction.’