Please join Associate Director Alice Strang when she gives the talk Collecting Joan Eardley: From the Highlands to Hampshire in Berwick-upon-Tweed on 24 June 2026. It accompanies the exhibition Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline, which is being held at The Granary Gallery in the town from 06 June until 11 October 2026.
In partnership with The Fleming Collection, the exhibition will examine Eardley’s deep connection with Catterline, a fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland. She first visited it in 1951 and the village became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air. She would paint and sketch ‘on the spot’ in all seasons, weather conditions and times of day. In 1954, she rented a small cottage at No.1 South Row and thereafter split her time between Glasgow and Catterline. Whilst keeping No. 1 as a store, Eardley went on to purchase No.18 South Row in 1959, which she maintained until her untimely death in 1963, at the age of forty-two.
Alice’s talk will explore the life-time and posthumous collecting of Eardley’s work in the public realm. This provides insight into the development of her career and reputation, as well as shedding light on the methods and patterns of collecting contemporary and British art by the country’s public museums, galleries and beyond. She will take us on a journey from the Highlands to Hampshire via Eardley’s tremendous paintings, involving the Ministry of Works, the BBC and an Oxford college for starters. The talk will conclude with a review of the private collecting of Eardley’s work, not least the world record price of £200,200 achieved by Lyon & Turnbull for her painting The Yellow Jumper in 2022.
For further information about Alice’s talk and to book tickets, please click here.
Information about the exhibition will be published soon on The Maltings website.
Alice has written an article about Eardley which will be published in the May 2026 issue of Scottish Field, due out in early April.
