Elizabeth Blackadder is widely recognised as one of Scotland’s most significant twentieth-century artists. Awarded the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and an Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship, Blackadder’s travels founded a passion that is reflected in her art, the attention to detail she applied to her surroundings bringing her paintings to life. Working mostly in oils and watercolours, Blackadder was also a prolific printmaker. The inspiration she took from different mediums can be seen throughout the sketchbooks from this bequest.
This sketchbook contains a series of nude drawings. Using pencil and charcoal to capture the elegant figures, Blackadder focuses on the female form, experimenting with light and shade. The latter half of the sketchbook contains a series of architectural sketches which are labelled as plans for lithographs; a special insight into Blackadder’s process of printmaking.
