JOAN KATHLEEN HARDING EARDLEY, R.S.A. | COTTAGES, CATTERLINE

Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh, where purchased by the present owner

Edinburgh, Aitken Dott & Son, Festival Exhibition, 1964, no.57

Joan Eardley first visited the small Aberdeenshire fishing village of Catterline in the early 1950s. Her friend, Annette Stephen, helped her buy her first cottage in the remote and peaceful village allowing her to spend some time away from the urban bustle of Glasgow. In 1954 Eardley moved to Catterline permanently and bought her own cottage which lacked many basic utilities. Catterline though provided Eardley with a powerful artistic stimulus and her works from this period are amongst some of the most expressive and experimental painting produced in Britain during this period.

The present work was painted in 1961 and depicts a small white-washed cottage which appears to almost dissolve into the stormy blue-grey sky. There are small punctuations of colour set against the grey, notably touches of cornflower blue, a hallmark of her Catterline paintings. Whilst Eardley often worked on a large scale during this period her smaller boards are both succinct and spontaneous and demonstrate the captivating quality of her brush work and handling.