Joan Eardley at The Granary Gallery

Excerpt from the Joaneardley.com and Womenshistorynetwork.org

Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline
6 June – 11 October 2026
The Granary Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK

Joan Eardley, Summer Sea, Oil on board. (c1960-c1963). Royal Scottish Academy © 2026 Estate of Joan Eardley. All Rights Reserved, DACS.
This summer, The Granary Gallery in Berwick-upon-Tweed presents Joan Eardley: The Sea at Catterline, a major exhibition developed in partnership with The Fleming Collection, exploring the powerful seascapes created by one of the most distinctive British artists of the 20th century.

Regarded as one of the most original and admired artists of her generation, Joan Eardley (1921–1963) is widely known for her tender, yet unsentimental, portraits of street children in Glasgow.

Alongside this celebrated body of work, however, she produced an extraordinary series of landscapes and seascapes inspired by the small fishing village of Catterline, south of Aberdeen, where she spent the latter part of her life. The exhibition is part of the RSA Celebrating Together Project across the UK, marking 200 years of the Royal Scottish Academy.

The exhibition focuses on works made between mid-1950s and 1963, a period widely considered the peak of Eardley’s creative powers.

About Joan Eardley

‘In 2021, Scotland celebrated the centenary of one of our boldest, bravest and most innovative artists: Joan Eardley (1921–1963). Whether literally risking life and limb to capture the fearsome storms that ravaged the remote coastal village of Catterline or bringing warmth and compassion to the crooked smiles of her ‘wee’ Glasgow urchins, Joan’s art was imbued with a rare, raw authenticity, and that courage extended to her personal life too. Although seldom acknowledged in lists of LGBT+ pioneers, Joan lived privately yet unapologetically as a lesbian in socially conservative mid-century Scotland’ – Lyndsey Jenkins/womenshistorynetwork.org