Dame Elizabeth Blackadder OBE RA RSA RSW RGI (1931 – 2021)

Born: 24 September 1931

Elizabeth Blackadder studied at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art from 1949 to 1954. In 1954 she was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship by the Royal Scottish Academy, which took her to southern Europe. Blackadder also received an Andrew Grant Post-Graduate Scholarship. In 1955 she was awarded another Travelling Scholarship and spent nine months in Italy. In 1956 Blackadder married the painter, John Houston and lectured in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 1962 to 1986.

Blackadder’s first solo exhibition was held in 1959 at 57 Gallery, Edinburgh. Since then, solo exhibitions of her work have been held almost every year to date, both nationally and internationally. She has also participated extensively in group exhibitions around the world.

Blackadder has received a number of awards, including the Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy (1962) and the Pimms Award for Work on Paper (Royal Academy, 1983). She was joint-winner of the Royal Academy’s Watercolour Foundation Award in 1988. Blackadder was elected Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972, a Royal Academician in 1976 and a Member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1983. She is an Honorary Member of the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has also received Honorary Doctorates from four Scottish universities. In 2001 she was appointed Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland.

Profile: Royal Academician, Elected ARA: 22 April 1971, Elected RA: 29 April 1976

Recent Solo Exhibitions:

2011-2012 Park Gallery, Falkirk
2011 National Gallery Complex, Edinburgh
2010 Browse & Darby, London
2008 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Browse & Darby, London
2004 Browse & Darby, London
2002 Kelvin Grove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
2000 Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh
1999 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
1998 The Scottish Gallery, Aitken Dott, Edinburgh
Mercury Gallery, London
Glasgow Print Studio

Selected Public Collections:
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery
Contemporary Art Society
Dunfermline, Carnegie Trust
Edinburgh City Art Gallery
Eastbourne, Tower Art Gallery
Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery
Government Art Collection
Greater London Council
Heriot Watt University
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Portrait Gallery, London
Scottish Arts Council
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Tate Gallery, London
University of Cambridge, Kettle’s Yard
University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow, Hunterian Art Gallery
Wustun Museum, Racine, Wisconsin, USA