Overview of Elizabeth Blackadder

Painter. Born in Falkirk, Blackadder was educated at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, where she went on to teach (1962-86). She married fellow art student John Houston (b.1930) in 1956. In 1954, she was awarded a scholarship which allowed her to visit Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy. These travels inspired her early works which were landscapes, including Fifeshire Farm, Roman Wall and Italian Landscape (all 1960 and now in the Tate Gallery), but later she began to produce still life, both in oil and water colour, for which she is now best known. Her compositions are easily recognisable. They exhibit a Japanese style in terms of space, yet put well known objects in curious association with cats, ribbons, flowers or plants on an empty or abstract background. Blackadder was the first Scottish female painter who was elected to full membership of both the Royal Scottish Academy (1972) and the Royal Academy (1976). She was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 1982. Her collections have been displayed at the Tate Gallery (London), the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).