This print was created in conjunction with the Glasgow Print Studio 50th Anniversary Here & Now Legacy Project. "When asked to make a print for Glasgow Print Studio’s 50th Anniversary exhibition I recalled pictures I had taken some time ago when visiting a friend who lives in a top floor flat in Dowanhill, one of the highest points in Glasgow’s Westend. While admiring the friend’s unobstructed 180 degree South-facing view an unusual shaped cloud began to drift in from the West. I grabbed my camera and fired off a series of shots, one of which I chose as the basis for the print, ‘Towards the light’."

"The chosen image appropriately contains a number of ‘motifs’ that have appeared in my previous prints - the tower at Glasgow University, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Finnieston Crane, chimney smoke and an interesting sky. However, although the strange cloud formation was what I had remembered, on reflection I felt the composition of the picture was too evenly balanced between sky and ground. I decided to edit out a large part of the sky to create a more elongated format which would emphasise the panoramic nature of the view and further worked on the image to alter its tonal range and enhance its ‘mood’."

Harry Magee was born in Glasgow in 1943. He studied at Glasgow School of Architecture between 1960-62 and Glasgow School of Art between 1962-66, DA (Industrial Design). He joined Glasgow Print Studio in 1978. In 1988 he was elected Professional Member of Society of Scottish Artists. He was chairman of the board at Glasgow Print Studio between 1989-93.

“Glasgow’s urban landscape has been the subject for many of my prints. The city, like Rome, is built on seven hills and walking about any of these elevated parts of town, or looking out from a tall building, you can see the rooftops receding in layers towards the surrounding countryside and beyond to where the distant hills meet the sky. As we say in Glasgow, it is possible to have four seasons in a day, so there is always something interesting going on in the sky. The inter-relationship between the sky and light falling on buildings is at the core of my image-making. I carry a camera going about my daily life and if a new vista opens up or I return to known viewpoints, I use the camera as a sketchbook to record possible images for future intaglio prints."