Joan Eardley

The Joan Eardley exhibition at the RSA was wonderful. I was surprised at the amount of work there was and also, because I have a very limited knowledge of her work, how many landscapes there were. I was quite excited by that because her use of texture and the leaning towards abstraction (although we are told she remained firmly a realist) did remind me of the sort of work I am trying to create at the moment. I was fascinated by her limited sphere of sources (i.e. Catterline and Inner Glasgow). Talking to another tutor today (Super Saturday) did make me think that perhaps in terms of her peers of the time, her work was very limited. But in saying that, it gave her unlimited time to focus on these two areas. I was overwhelmed when I was standing infront of the last piece she was working on - I had a very surprising and instant emotional response and have to confess it brought tears to my eyes. Whether it was because this was her final piece and it was unfinished and that made me think of the frailty of life or whether I could see that there was so much more development work she could have done, I'm not quite sure. It was a very emotive piece. I've bought the catalogue and will be pouring over it for a long time this term I think.