Explore: Joan Eardley

(1921 - 1963)

Joan Eardley was born in Sussex but moved with her family to Glasgow in 1939. She studied briefly at Goldsmiths College in London (1938-1939), completing her studies at Glasgow School of Art (1940-1943). During 1948 and 1949 she visited Paris and Italy on a scholarship from the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1950 Eardley discovered the remote fishing village of Catterline, just south of Aberdeen in Scotland and began painting wild seascapes and cliff-top landscapes. For the rest of her life she divided her time between Catterline and Glasgow, where she painted the slums and tenements, as well as docksides and shipyards. Eardley was made an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1955 and was elected a full Academician in 1963