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Capturing a community

November 01 2015
Ann Samson in Rotten Row, Townhead, where Eardley painted. © WOTS team Glasgow Ann Samson in Rotten Row, Townhead, where Eardley painted. © WOTS team Glasgow
Models for Scottish artist Joan Eardley gain recognition in a new play

 

Ann Samson – and her brothers and sisters – were painted by Scottish artist Joan Eardley in the 1950s when they were children living in Towhead, a deprived area of Glasgow.

Now the family is due to be given recognition by a new play about the late artist Joan Eardley, by Heroica Theatre in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland and Stellar Quines.

Anne, 60, and her sister Pat were the subject of many of her paintings, some of which now sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But unlike the paintings, their story has not been one of rags to riches; Ann has been homeless and uses the services of the Lodging House Mission in Glasgow, where she sings in the choir and volunteers with the woman’s group.

She told the Pavement’s Word on the Street team about her experiences of living in poverty, then and now, and why she will always count the artist as a member of her family.

“When I was quite young, about six, and lived in Townhead, Glasgow, there was a lady who came around the streets painting. My older brother met her first and he used to disappear after school and my ma would wonder where he was going. All he said was he was going to a woman’s house.

“My mum stormed down there and the woman turned out to be the artist Joan Eardley. She asked if she could paint the rest of the family. She started painting us and we got thru’penny bit and a piece of treacle and cheese in return. Then it was a luxury. And just from then on, we were part of her family and she was part of ours.

“She had a Christmas party for us kids one year before she died and it was just great because I’d never had a party. We all got big toys which we never got because there was no money at home. She sold one of her paintings for £50 to pay for it. It’s probably worth thousands now.

“We used to go to Joan’s to get a heat sometimes because you couldn’t afford coal. We used to break up furniture to light the fire. It was poverty, then.

“Then she died. I always remember we went to her door one day and she chased us, told us to go away. My ma went down to see what was going on and she told her she had cancer and that was the last time we saw her.

“She died a few months later. She went back to Cataline and was taken ill. They took her by train to Stonehaven and she died in the hospital there. We still think of her as part of the family as she’ll never be forgotten. She wasn’t famous when she died, but she was special to us.

“Not everybody thought so. The Lord Provost of Glasgow at the time didn’t even want her paintings shown because it showed Glasgow in poverty.

“Now people are beginning to see her as important.

“When I look back at those days, it was real poverty, but at the same time, they were good times. No like now. You’d still be scrimping and scraping to get back but you could go to people’s doors and ask for a bit of sugar or milk. People’s doors were always open then.

“Now, you cannae do that. There’s no sense of community. Where we stayed, that was a community. Everybody spoke to one another.

“Joan died poor, but at the end of the day she’s part of Townhead, part of Glasgow and she’ll always be part of the community that stayed with her at that time. She felt part of us."

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April – May 2024 : Compassion

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