Joan Eardley is painting the roiling sea at Catterline, near Aberdeen, in the depths of winter. The waves churn white and gold beneath pressurising skies, crashing towards the dark rocks where she stands. It is 1959 and Eardley is dressed in an old RAF flying suit and boots against the storms to get down this magnificent vision of the elements in full force. Four years later she will be dead, at 42, of cancer.
Any exhibition that includes even a single painting by this wild and stirring genius is a precious opportunity. Scottish Women Artists: 250 Years of Challenging Perception has two Eardleys and many more Scottish marvels. Mabel Pryde paints her daughter in a twinkling harlequin suit in 1910, side-lit in resentful shadows. Agnes Miller Parker portrays a post-cubist black cat knocking over a vase of lilies and a silly Venus statue to plant its paws on a useful pound note. It is 1930. Women at long last won the right to vote.
