Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline

Wednesday – Sunday | 11am-4pm

Standard: £7.50
Friends of Maltings | YHA members | Art Fund members | Under 21s | Unemployed | Students: Free

This summer, The Granary Gallery in Berwick-upon-Tweed presents Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline, a major exhibition developed in partnership with The Fleming Collection, exploring the powerful seascapes created by one of the most distinctive British artists of the 20^th century.

Alongside this celebrated body of work, however, she produced an extraordinary series of landscapes and seascapes inspired by the small fishing village of Catterline, south of Aberdeen, where she spent the latter part of her life. The exhibition is part of the RSA Celebrating Together Project across the UK, marking 200 years of the Royal Scottish Academy.

Eardley first visited Catterline in 1951 and was immediately captivated by its dramatic coastline and wild environment. Dividing her time between her Glasgow studio in Townhead and the remote coastal village, she eventually settled there, working from cottages overlooking the North Sea. Perched on the edge of a cliff above the village’s crescent-shaped bay, Eardley found endless inspiration in the surrounding landscape – from the buildings and farmland to the rugged shoreline.

The exhibition focuses on works made between the mid-1950s and 1963, a period widely considered the peak of Eardley’s creative powers. Loans from the Royal Scottish Academy, The Fleming Collection, Aberdeen Art Gallery and private collections bring together a remarkable group of paintings and works on paper created in response to Catterline’s dramatic coastline.

Highlights of the exhibition include Summer Sea (c.1960-63) from the Royal Scottish Academy, Field of Barley by the Sea from The Fleming Collection and The Sea II (1963) from Huddersfield Art Gallery, which demonstrate the extraordinary vitality and emotional intensity of Eardley’s late seascapes.

The exhibition also includes works by artists who had a significant impact on her life and creative practice, including Margot Sandeman and her lover, Lil Neilson, with whom she had an intense relationship towards the end of her life.