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Eardley will have made her way down to the water’s edge in the late afternoon, picking her way over the rocks and creels in the fading winter light. Her viewpoint is to the east of the pier close to the small salmon bothy, looking back towards the long sweep of cliffs, leading towards the headland and the silhouette of Todhead Lighthouse. The distinctive geographical features of Catterline’s rocky bay frame her scene, with the boulder like structures of ‘Kale Tap’ and ‘Dunning Woof’ lying in shadow against the backdrop of dark hill. The tide is high, and Eardley paints from the edge of the surf with the North Sea swell throwing foam over submerged rocks. The subject is the intense sunset, piercing the brooding sky like a line of fire which illuminates the shallow water in a pink and violet light. This painting was gifted by the artist to her friend and Catterline resident Annette Stephen (née Soper), who first introduced Eardley to the area in 1951, later marrying local fisherman ‘Big’ Jim Stephen. Painted between 1960 and 1963 and relating closely to its sister work in the collection of the City Art Centre, Sunset over Catterline shows Eardley at the height of her expressive powers, the full potential of her visual language realised to harness the immediacy of her experience.
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