Picture post card 1945

This picture postcard by Sikko van der Woude offers a surreal take on Scottish iconography, rendered with quirky humour. I can imagine the artist hunched over this small rectangle, carefully deploying thin washes of color to build up the character's strange details. Just look at that figure: a peculiar take on a Scottish bagpiper, with a furry creature draped around his neck and an exaggerated profile. The colours are muted, almost faded, with a palette of soft yellows, oranges, and greens creating a dreamlike atmosphere. There's a bottle of "BOLS" casually placed next to him, as though he's interrupted his set for a wee dram. It makes me wonder what van der Woude was thinking. Was he poking fun at stereotypes, or was it a more heartfelt homage to Scottish culture? The beauty of an image like this lies in its ambiguity. It invites us to embrace the absurd, to find joy in the unexpected. It reminds us that art is not about providing answers, but about sparking curiosity and inviting us to think differently.