Born: 24 September 1931, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK

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, and 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 1962-86.

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 from 1961, notably in Canada, Germany, USA, Japan, Brazil, Australia and Russia, as well as in the UK.

Blackadder has received a number of awards, including the Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy in 1962, the Pimms Award for Work on Paper, Royal Academy, in 1983 and 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. Blackadder lives and works in Edinburgh.

Recent solo exhibitions:

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

1996             Mercury Gallery, London

1994             The Scottish Gallery, Aitken Dott, Edinburgh Festival Exhibition

1993             Glasgow Print Studio

                    Mercury Gallery, London

1992             DLI Museum, Durham

1991             Mercury Gallery, London

1990             Abbot Hall, Kendal

Public Collections:

Argyll County Council

Aberdeen Art Gallery

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal

Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery

Contemporary Art Society

Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery

Dundee Museum and Art Gallery

Dunfermline, Carnegie Trust

Edinburgh City Art Gallery

Eastbourne, Tower Art Gallery