Wyllie was an outdoors enthusiast, and as a keen cyclist and climber, his interest in the landscape came from a familiarity with the geography and atmosphere around his home in Argyll and the high Northwest. His great skill was combining detailed draughtsmanship with an expressive language, suited to capture the drama of light and weather. His late works, which are concerned with man’s interaction with nature, often feature the motif of rural architecture, with cottages seemingly dwarfed by the vast wildness of the landscape beyond.
Gordon Hope Wyllie was born in Greenock in 1930, where he was educated at the Highlanders Academy and later Greenock High School where he became Principal Teacher of Art and Design. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1949 to 1953, under the tutelage of William and Mary Armour, and later with Ian Fleming at Hospitalfield in Arbroath. Whilst at Glasgow, Wyllie was awarded a post-diploma and received both the RSA Award and the Newbery Medal. Wyllie was elected to RSW in 1967 and enjoyed a long exhibiting career including the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts amongst others.