Jim and I are in Edinburgh for a few days. The Joan Eardley exhibition was excellent. She worked in two main fields - tenements and people in Glasgow Townhead (a deprived slum); and landscape at Catterline, a largely depopulated fishing village of about 13 dwellings just south of Aberdeen. Both sets of circumstances had similarities - a resilient population that made the best of a hard living.
I looked at both sets of paintings and enjoyed them, but decided to only analyse the images of people. Her earlier works of people in Townhead were heavy and sombre - interior scenes with a range and a man (a fellow artist) smoking. But her later works, mostly of children, were delightful. These were often quick chalk sketches of tenement children - energetic, colourful, very gestural. I liked the way she had captured an attitude or a posture - Eardley would give them comics or paint and paper to occupy them whilst she drew them. She was known in her area, and the children would often come up the stairs to her studio and ask if she wanted to paint them. Apparently she would pay them 3d, or 6d for a long 45 minute pose, and they would rush off to spend it on sweeties! There was a local family, the Samsons, with 12 children who she got to know quite well. I loved the drawing of the red headed girl with a pronounced squint.
The landscapes were often large and gestural oils, boldly coloured and included sand, grit and grass/wheat seeds. There were several preparatory sketches, in chalks, worked on smaller pieces of paper, with additional paper stuck to the rear when she needed to extend the drawing in a particular direction. I often liked the preparatory drawings more.
Her eye was said to be "keen, but kind". I liked this quote.
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