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.