Successful career

Rosie Hooper (formerly known as Rosemary Folley-Davey) has emailed the column and says: “After my second visit to the Lil Neilson exhibition in Broughty Ferry, I’ve been remembering the times I first knew her. I was a lowly member of the Rep company back in the 1950s in the Nicoll Street theatre with its lovely Arts and Crafts frontage.

“Lil was a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, and also a frequent backstage worker at the Rep. She had become a close friend with Rita Guenigault who was my ‘superior’ in the stage management crew. Lil would help out with the set painting in her holidays – a valuable asset in those days of fortnightly rep.

“Lil went on to be a well respected painter, particularly for her paintings of Catterline, but latterly for the epic oils she did before her death 20 years ago, and for prints she produced at the Dundee Printmakers Workshop, then in the Seagate.

“Rita went on to have a successful career in stage management, spending many years at the Glynbourne Opera, while I kept up my friendship with Lil up until her last illness.

“Lil died just before her 60th birthday in March 1998, so it is fitting that the Eduardo Alessandro Gallery in Gray Street have mounted such a fine display of her works – some cottage-sized paintings from her younger days as well as some of the important later ones. Lil Neilson – Remembering a Catterline Artist is on until Saturday April 14. The free illustrated catalogue is beautiful in its own right.”

“The greenfinch has become a rare bird these days,” says Eric Niven, “so it was nice to see some near the Eden in Guardbridge. This one is a male.”