Pentimento & Joan Eardley
Working in studios with other artists as well as photographers and framers has exposed me to things which I would never have seen otherwise.
Last week when I was in the framers, the art restorer from the studio next to me was in looking for a frame for a painting which he was working on. The painting was a Joan Eardley original worth over 150k. It was painted on hardboard and I just loved being able to look at it. I remember a teacher at school talking about Joan Eardley and her paintings of Glasgow “weans” but I never really paid that much attention to her landscapes for some reason. The internet is at it’s best when it does that whole “library in your home” thing and I have had a great time being blown away by some of her landscapes. They are some of the most emotive I have seen and there is that tinge of sadness when you look at them as she died young.
Today I passed Brian the restorer as I went to clean my brushes. He was working on a huge canvas of an unknown fishing village on the east coast of Scotland painted at the turn of the last century. The figures in the painting were incredible, I absolutely loved it and Brian was pointing out the Pentimento to me. I had not noticed this until it had been pointed out and then it was very obvious. There are many terms in painting which people don’t know and if you do, you sometimes forget: unless that is you studied the Italian language. Pentimento is when an artist paints over his work and this can later be seen on inspection, sometimes only with x-ray.
When he used this word though, he followed it up with another,sfumato and I was immediately transported back to my art lecturer, George Devlin, who used these words but with a broad Glasgow accent. His best, which reduced most of us to tears (not that anyone was brave enough to get caught by George !) was “Chiarascuro”.
Jeely Piece anyone?
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Hi Joe, I have a google alert set up for Joan Eardley so was drawn to your blog. Charlie Jamieson told me about the Eardley as he knows I’m really interested in her life and work and so I popped in to see it at Arthire yesterday (with strict instructions from Mark not to write about it … but I might sneak a wee blog in since you have).
I thought it was fantastic. Amazing to see. The collector is the same one who bought the Eardley last year and got a ‘two for one’ as there was a wee oil painting of a samson boy hidden in behind a pastel on glass paper. Mark had a new print just done by his dad, Memories of Joan E… you should ask if you can see it too. A great story behind it too as Mark’s dad taught the Samson kids and used to walk past her studio every day. He’s always regretted not going in and saying hello.
Loved the George Devlin story!
Jan
September 5th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Hi Jan, thanks for your comments. I feel like I have just seen Joan’s work with new eyes because, as I said, I had not really looked at the paintings since school. I don’t actually know who the collector is – I didn’t ask. I was just lucky to be in the framers at the right time and saw it there.
Oh, and I have lots of George Devlin stories!