Joan Eardley was an unassuming artist of intense dedication, generosity of spirit, gentle charm and a true giant of Scottish art.
We are now told that 50 years ago she wrote love letters to Audrey Walker ("Female artist's love letters to the wife of Scots sheriff", The Herald, March 20). Why is it so important nowadays that we explore someone's sexuality (and intimate love letters ) rather than their achievements?
In that latter process we may glean something which is life-enhancing from how and why they succeeded.
How about some deeply investigative focus on how to reconcile Joan's tender and sensitive paintings of the Samson children in Townhead set alongside the raw savagery of her winter seas at Catterline? Let's set that contradiction within the historic framework of duality within the artist, of any discipline.
Certainly her Catterline work lifted Scottish responses to land and seascape work above and beyond the purely visual and on to a visceral level that poses questions on the nature and the relevance of realism in art worldwide. So, she also wrote a few letters?
George Devlin,
Rosebank, 6 Falcon Terrace Lane,
Glasgow.
What exactly was the point of the headline "Female artist's love letters to the wife of Scots sheriff"? Surely it's not news that someone was or is gay? Would you have had the headline "Male artist's love letters to the wife of Scots sheriff"?
Sandra Malcolm,
Flat 3/1, 34 Randolph Gate, Glasgow.
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