Lil Neilson, 1938-1998

Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Neilson attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee from 1956 to 1960, a course of study that included a summer at Hospitalfield in Arbroath. She completed a post-diploma year tutored by Hugh Adam Crawford and Alberto Morrocco, and won a travelling scholarship to France and Italy the next year. On her return she joined Joan Eardley in Catterline, on Scotland's east coast; they had become friends in 1960, and Eardley invited Neilson to paint in her studio. Neilson remained in Catterline after Eardley's death in 1963.