Elizabeth Blackadder RSA 1931-2021
Elected ARSA: 20 March 1963
Elected RSA: 9 February 1972
Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RSA was born in Falkirk in 1931 and is widely recognised to be one of Scotland’s most successful living artists. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art under the tutelage of Sir Robin Philipson and William Gillies and lectured at the College from 1962 until her retirement in 1986.
After graduating in 1954, Blackadder was awarded both a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and an Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship. She used these funds to spend three months travelling through Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy, where she researched classical and Byzantine art. This founded a passion for travel which has continued through her prolific career.
Elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972 and the Royal Academy in 1976, she is the first woman to become a member of both institutions.
Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RSA paints in oil and watercolours and has worked with printmakers on a variety of printing techniques. Her sensitivity to her surroundings has inspired many still-life paintings, as well as many portraits of her cats, where she captures the paraphernalia around her studio and her domestic interior in compositions tending towards the abstract.
The objects featured in her paintings are often those she collected during her many travels in Europe and in the East. The space between objects and their resonance with each other hold a great fascination for her.
Blackadder paints in oil and watercolours and has worked with printmakers on a variety of printing techniques.
Her sensitivity to her surroundings has inspired many still-life paintings, as well as many portraits of her cats, where she captures the paraphernalia around her studio and her domestic interior in compositions tending towards the abstract. The objects featured in her paintings are often those she collected during her many travels in Europe and in the East. The space between objects and their resonance with each other hold a great fascination for her.
-
Aviary
19 January - 17 February 2019The Academicians’ Gallery Free entry Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song. No winter in thy year! Michael...Read more -
Winter Flowers
20 January - 8 March 2018RSA Lower Galleries Free entry In 2015, an Anne Redpath lithograph was purchased for the RSA Collection. Winters Flowers was made by Anne in collaboration with Harley Brothers in Edinburgh....Read more -
In Japan
Highlights of Academicians' projects in contemporary Japan 30 July - 17 September 2011RSA Finlay & Projects Room Free entry For a 360° panorama of the show click here. Artists have long been fascinated with Japanese art and culture. This exhibition examines projects...Read more -
The Curious Eye
14 July - 27 September 2007RSA Friends Room & Library Artists are naturally curious and, in all cultures since cave painting, curiosity about the natural world has been a springing point for the creative imagination....Read more