The Scottish Landscapes of Joan Eardley

by Gabriella Sotiriou

Joan Eardly is one of Scotland’s most admired artists, yet her career only lasted fifteen years. Born in Sussex in 1921, Eardley and her mother moved to Scotland after her father committed suicide, the tragic result of shell shock from his time spent in the trenches during World War I. Eventually ending up in Glasgow, Joan secured a place at the Glasgow School of Art in 1940. From there she continued her studies at Hospitalfield House post graduate art school in Arbroath in 1947. It was during this time that the artist began to form a fascination with the Scottish landscape. After a brief time spent travelling around Europe through the means of a Carnegie Scholarship, she settled in a small fishing village called Catterline in 1949. 

picture of the artist Joan Eardley. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13097113.just-janice-does-it-matter-if-joan-eardley-was-a-lesbian/

Catterline was a great source of inspiration for Eardley. The village consisted of thirty cottages and was in a very remote area. The open landscapes of sea, land and sky influenced not only the subject matter, but also the scale of her paintings. Her canvases became more imposing as the artist became increasingly attracted to the wildness of the nature that surrounded her. She was interesting in the work of artists such as Wassily Kandinsky at this period. The sea and field scenes undergo a process of abstraction as they are brought to life on the canvas. However, Eardley does not lose all figuration with elements within each landscape.

Joan Eardley, The Wave, 1961, oil and grit on hardboard, National Galleries Scotland

In The Wave (1961) we see evidence of Eardley’s fascination with the power of the ocean. The ever rising wall of water that faces Eardley and thus the viewer is a reminder of its ability to fill a space. As it faces us we cannot help but fulfil one side of a comparative relationship, one in which we are inferior. This barricade of water seems to be continuously growing in the canvas, making us no match for this uncontrollable and unstoppable force of nature. Eardley creates a mood of suspense. We wait entirely at the sea’s mercy. Will it forcefully wash over us and taking us as its own? Or will it stop at our feet half buried in the sand, saving us as prey for another day? Like Eardley, we will inevitably return through human nature’s unexplainable pull towards crashing tides. In this image we see and feel the dual nature of the ocean as something that can offer both comfort, putting us in a calm state and yet threaten, creating fear within us. Eardley’s choice of colour serves to emphasise these notions - the muted natural colours being tranquil yet cold and isolating. The abstracted composition allows for the sea to be read as either. The water remains far enough away to not yet be a threat however, it has been painted with enough movement that it could be heading quickly into the foreground of the image and thus into the space dominated by the viewer’s presence. This painting is one of four where the artist attempted to track the movements of the water’s edge. It is one of many examples throughout history of people attempting to capture and understand the immensity of the sea. We see the sea here as something great, powerful, beautiful - a monster that we are desperate to examine and study. Eardley’s skill lies in being able to evoke all of these ideas and emotions in a single painting.

Joan Eardley, Summer Fields, 1961, oil and grass on hardboard, National Galleries Scotland

Sea scapes were not the only subject of Joan Eardleys paintings. Inspired by Claude Monet she also turned to dry land, attempting to capturing Catterline’s landscape. Eardley’s 1961 painting Summer Fields is an image flooded with warm sunlight that emphasises the golden sheen of the field’s grass. The low and persistent sun tells us that it is late summer, harvest time. The sun seems to flood out of the image, evoking a sense of its warmth upon our skin. However, beyond the bright filtered sunlight there is a dark sky. It is a hint of the stormy autumn on the horizon, a reminder that, much like the sea in The Wave, weather is uncontrollable. Eardley adds real grass to surface of the painting, creating a unique texture. She attempts to physically and literally capture part of the scene permanently before the wind changes direction, as the sun is covered by a cloud and the weather takes a turn for the worse. There is this imminent feeling that this specific moment will be lost forever. The viewpoint puts the viewer in a low position, in amongst the grass. She places us in a very specific setting where we are almost buried within the nature that surrounds us, almost becoming one with nature. 

In her landscapes Joan Eardley examines potential relationships between mankind and mother nature. Most viewers will project their own personal experiences with scenes such as those mentioned here - summer picnics in sun bleached fields, holidays to the coast, for St Andrew’s students chilled windswept walks on West Sands. The paintings are thus tainted with a unique fingerprint of emotion, thought and experience with each individual who looks upon them. Joan Eardley’s work then becomes as much a study of memory as it is of the present moment, as much a study of the viewer as it is one of the artist. We contemplate our feelings towards these locations and at the same time we question Eardley’s own experiences - was she painting due to sentimentality or fear fuelled attempts of control? Ultimately she pushes the viewer to transport themselves to the summer field or to the waves and discover the distinctions of their experience, just as Joan Eardley herself did in Catterline.