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Hidden fires

She depicted Scotland in all its raw, shabby glory, but Joan Eardley�s art has long been unjustly ignored. Why? Ahead of a major retrospective, Alan Taylor talks to those who knew the painter during her short, but profoundly creative, life

AS the summer of 1963 ripened into autumn, a train carried Joan Eardley from Aberdeen to Glasgow. It was to be the artist's last journey.