Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RWS (British, b.1931)

From 1949 to 1954 Elizabeth Blackadder studied at Edinburgh University College of Art at the end of which she received the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship by the Royal Scottish Academy and travelled to Southern Europe. In 1955 she was awarded another travelling Scholarship and spent nine months in Italy. In 1956 She married and later became a lecturer at Edinburgh college of Art.

In 1959 Blackadder had her first solo exhibition in an Edinburgh gallery. Following which, her work has been exhibited almost every year both nationally and internationally. Not only has she had numerous solo exhibitions but also many international group exhibitions.

Blackadder received the Royal Scottish Academy award in 1962 and was elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972. Blackadder became an honorary Member of the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painters and Printmakers. In 2001 She was appointed Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland. Blackadder lives and works in Edinburgh.

Her work is held in a number of important public collections including The Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery, Tate Gallery and Moma.

References: Christopher Allan. Elizabeth Blackadder Prints, London: Lund Humphries, 2003.