Bashed, dragged, and hauled: the materials and painting methods of Joan Eardley in Glasgow and Catterline

The materials and studio practice of painter Joan Eardley (1921-1963) shared a deeply physical, symbiotic relationship with her immediate environment. The young artist anchored her easel amid fidgety children in Glasgow slums or frothing waves on the remote Scottish coast of Catterline. She co-opted found scraps, candy wrappers, boat paint, seeds, and grasses as she painted, and her recycled canvases or industrial hardboards often battled humidity and gale force winds. Eardley guarded her private life intensely – much of her personal correspondence was embargoed until very recently; some still is – but she exhibited her artwork heavily across UK galleries before her untimely death at age 42. Eardley’s contribution to the surge of innovative post-war painting methods was prolific, yet she is not widely recognized outside Scotland. This ongoing research aims to illuminate Eardley’s studio practice, placing her more firmly as a significant artist of her time and ensuring the preservation of her work: Eardley’s improvisational and slightly reckless methods pose significant questions about her materials and their long-term care. No known published technical studies exist for Eardley, so this paper draws from material references within her few monographs and conservation records from Glasgow Life, as well as letters, photos, and primary source material consulted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art archives in Edinburgh.