Close
Lil Neilson has strong parallels with Joan Eardley (1921–1963), quite apart from their association, friendship, and lives in Catterline in Northeast Scotland. Sunrise Over a Seawall, Catterline and A Beached Boat speak to both the similarities in their work and the divergence. Looking at the same subjects, in particular the dark winters of dramatic sea and storm cloud, she was drawn to this wild, beautiful, forbidding place and exacted her painterly vision. Sunrise Over a Seawall, Catterline belongs to 1963 where the artist takes an imaginative, abstract approach to the subject. There is no sea wall structure in Catterline Bay: is it the sea this is the wall? Is it the harbour wall which shelters an enigmatic structure? It is a powerfully realised work that chimes with other directions in Scottish painting. Neilson was a restless searcher for well-being and truth and remains an enigmatic figure who is still to be fully appreciated as a great Scottish painter.
Born in Kirkcaldy, Lilian Neilson studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee from 1955 to 1960, followed by a brief period at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, where she became friends with Joan Eardley. She completed a post-diploma year tutored by Hugh Crawford and Alberto Morrocco in 1960-61 and was awarded a travelling scholarship to France and Italy in 1961-62. Following this time in Europe, she joined Joan Eardley in Catterline where Neilson responded to the dramatic northeast coastline and began painting powerful landscapes and seascapes. The artist also worked backstage with Reet Guenigault in theatres including the Traverse in Edinburgh, but she returned to Catterline to help nurse Joan Eardley when her illness was diagnosed in 1962. Neilson bought one of the tiny fishing cottages, No 2 South Side, Catterline, with her home on one side and studio on the other. Like Eardley, she lived a frugal life. She moved permanently to Catterline in 1986 where Neilson undertook monthly surveys of the coastline and local beaches and began studying printmaking in Dundee. Her final exhibition, Certain Days and Other Seasons, was held at the Seagate in Dundee and Aberdeen Museum & Art Gallery.
Struggling to find that perfect gift? We have the solution! A Scottish Gallery Gift Voucher is the perfect gift for friends, family, customers and colleagues.
Own Art is a national initiative that makes buying contemporary art and craft affordable by providing interest-free credit for the purchase of original work.
