In a 1961 interview Eardley spoke about her methods of working outdoors: ‘I very often find I will take my paints to a certain place which has moved me and I begin to paint there and I find, by perhaps the end of the summer, I haven’t moved from that place. My paints are still there, I’ve worn a kind of mark in the ground, there’s no grass left; generally a sort of studio seems to have arrived outside.’ As the seasons changed and the crops grew, the fields around Eardley’s cottage in Catterline were a continual source of inspiration for her. So much so that she hardly needed to move from one spot to find new and enthralling subject matter.