I enjoyed writing a Joan Eardley article for the May 2026 issue of Scottish Field, before giving a talk about her work on 24 June 2026 to accompany the exhibition Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline at The Granary Gallery in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
From the City to the Sea
The title of my Joan Eardley article was ‘From the City to the Sea’. I discussed how the artist is equally renowned for her portrayal of the children of Glasgow’s Townhead district, as for her images of Catterline, a fishing village on the Scottish north-east coast. It was published whilst a display of her work, intermingled with examples by other artists including Jean Dubuffet, William McTaggart and Bet Low from the Scottish national collection, was running at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. This was called Joan Eardley:The Nature of Painting and it ended on 28 June 2026.
Joan Eardley in Berwick-upon-Tweed
My Joan Eardley talk was an updated version of ‘Collecting Joan Eardley: From the Highlands to Hampshire’, which I originally wrote in 2021. In it I discuss the life-time and posthumous collecting of her work in the public realm, from Inverness Museum & Art Gallery to the National Trust property Mottisfont. Works have since been acquired by the University of Aberdeen (Andrew of 1955) and by Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries (Field and Sky). The installation photograph above shows Winter Sea III of 1959 lent by the Fleming Collection, The Sea No.5 of 1963 (above) and The Tod Lighthouse, Catterline of c.1961 (below), both lent from private collections. The Berwick-upon-Tweed exhibition runs until 11 October 2026 and is well worth a visit.
You can watch a recording of my short version of my original ‘Collecting Joan Eardley’ talk here. For more about The Granary Gallery please follow this link. If you are interested in the Fleming Collection, you might like this post.
