‘Incredible response’ to display of artist’s work

This weekend is final chance to see Joan Eardley’s paintings

Massive public interest is anticipated for a final look at the Mearns paintings of one of Scotland’s finest modern artists.

Joan Eardley divided a 15-year career between painting the street children of Glasgow and the wild landscape of Catterline, before her death from cancer aged 42 in 1963.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh has seen an “incredible response” to what has become one of its most popular exhibitions, with queues out the door in Belford Road on weekends.

And tomorrow’s final opening will see talks by curator Patrick Elliott and local photographer Ron Stephen, who lived next to Eardley in the village in the 1950s.

“When you see the paintings, I can plant my feet in the spot,” he said of the Catterline images.

“There’s no doubt about it, she was something else.”

Catterline Primary School pupils have been able to visit the exhibition thanks to buses put on by the gallery, and a lamp-post festooned with stickers on the nearby Dean Bridge gives some indication as to the public interest in Eardley’s work so far.

Eardley was born in Sussex and her family moved to Bearsden in 1939.

A prize-winning graduate of Glasgow School of Art, she spent part of each year in accommodation without electricity or running water, and bemused local fishermen with her habit of painting next to the dangerous water.

Beyond the well-loved paintings at its core, Joan Eardley: A Sense Of Place draws on sketches and photographs which remain largely unknown.

Mr Elliott said: “Eardley’s always been massively popular at the gallery and we get more requests for her than we do Picasso or Matisse.”

Stickers on a lamp-post on Dean Bridge in Edinburgh show just how popular the exhibition of Joan Eardley’s work has been.