The Cornfield, 1962
Oil on board
112 x 125 cm
Joan Eardley was an English-born painter whose expressive depictions of the character and force of nature, both human and environmental, earned her a place among Scotland’s most treasured modern artists.
Eardley found inspiration in the unbridled spirit of two vastly different subjects: the children of the delipidated old heart of Glasgow (see E for… Eardley in our Artists A-Z), and the weather-beaten landscape of Catterline on the north-east coast of Scotland.
Born in Sussex and raised in London, Eardley later moved to Scotland with her mother and sister at the outbreak of the Second World War. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and rented a studio by the tenements of Townhead where she painted the local children.
In 1950, Eardley made her first visit to the small fishing village of Catterline and was charmed by its rugged coastal landscape. By the early 1960s, Eardley spent most of her time at Catterline, rarely venturing beyond a 200-yard radius of her fisherman’s cottage to paint. It was along the Catterline coast that Eardley’s ashes were scattered following her tragic early death from cancer in 1963.
Bequeathed by Guy Howard, 1992.
In more detail...
- The Cornfield
In Catterline, Eardley focused on landscapes that bore the traces of working people, specifically farmers’ fields and the working harbours.
The Cornfield was painted from Eardley’s beloved rental cottage at No. 1 Catterline, the most southerly of the cliff-hanging houses in the village.
The painting is a field-mouse eye view of the landscape which includes stalks of grass and corn plucked from the fields and stuck down with wet oil paint.
- Catterline
Eardley worked outdoors in all weather conditions, immersing herself into the elemental landscape and conveying this immediacy of experience in her thickly textured works.
Eardley preferred to paint in extreme weather conditions and would often complain of boredom when painting on calm and sunny days.
When looking closely at Eardley’s paintings of Catterline in Lakeland Arts’ collection, the curatorial team were struck by the puzzling circular indents on the top and bottom of the boards. These circular marks, about the size of a two-pence coin, were where Eardley attached a G-clamp to fix the board onto the easel in stormy weather.
[insert page=’block-become-a-member’ display=’content’]
