Biography for Joan Eardley

Childhood

Eardley studied at Goldsmiths' College School of Art and from 1940-3 at Glasgow School of Art from which she graduated with several prizes. She spent time at Jordanhill College of Education and worked as a joiner's labourer before spending six months under James Cowie at the Patrick Allen-Fraser School of Art, Hospitalfield. In 1948 she returned to Glasgow School of Art to take up her post-diploma scholarship and taught as a guest teacher at Hospitalfield in 1960. She was elected to Society of Scottish Artists in 1948 and the Royal Scottish Academy in 1963 shortly before her death.