Joan Eardley

A friend had seen paintings by Joan Eardley whilst at the Edinburgh Festival - size wise she described "Slithers. Intense, gorgeous but very tiny."

In her books Eardley is shown painting on giant boards, standing almost in the sea or waist deep in grass facing the elements. I like the idea of slither paintings, I am trying to paint very small this week.

Meanwhile a few snippets from the book above...

"Eardley's work celebrates two aspects of Scottish identity that are both urban and rural. She also focused on areas of life that were fast disappearing, yet which were tenaciously clinging on. Her works showing poverty-stricken tenement life were balanced by her depictions of the landscape of north-east Scotland."

"Joan Eardley was essentially an artist who drew inspiration from subjects in the open air, not in the studio. In Glasgow, slum children played in the streets against a background of scribbled tenement walls and shop windows; in Catterline, human subjects were supplanted by the roar of stormy seas or the hum of summer fields. From the city she extracted essential characteristics of young and old; on the coast she was interested in neither fisherman nor farmers, but in the sea and the land" David Irwin

Last time I blogged about a great book, it was out of print. This time you can order this and more from Pallant House Gallery Bookshop