ELIZABETHBLACKADDER

The Nature of Things

ELIZABETH BLACKADDER

The Nature of Things

2 august – 4 september 2013

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ

tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk

web www.scottish-gallery.co.uk

Cover: Fennel and Friends, watercolour, 43 x 58 cms

Left: Three Orchids, watercolour, 52 x 36 cms

introduction

We could call this exhibition of recent watercolours modest and

indeed everything Elizabeth Blackadder makes is in one sense

modest. She does not paint to impress her fellow Academicians

in London or Edinburgh, she is unaware of her reputation and

she does not seek new audiences and plaudits. Instead she

works away, quietly unconscious of anything except the gentle

challenge of the next painting. Each is a subtle resolution

suggested by the juxtaposition of stems and blooms; or autumn

leaves, the first brought as a trophy proffered by Toby, the more

tractable of her two cats, arranged in perfect conversation across

her sheet.

Her familiar irises and tulips are here and then a surprise; roses,

on their narrow, thorny stems, in dusty pinks, as if picked from

a wild hedgerow. From Eddy’s Fish Market or the van that toots

its horn in her leafy street come lobsters and mackerel, bought

for the table but bounty first for the studio. Two years after

her monumental retrospective with the Galley of Modern Art

this modest assembly of new watercolours reminds us that her

greatness is undimmed.

guy peploe

the scottish gallery

1 Toby, watercolour, 22 x 30 cms

2 Leaves, Melon and Gourd, watercolour, 30 x 49 cms

3 Leaves and Pepper, watercolour, 40 x 57 cms

4 Toby, 2000, watercolour & charcoal, 50 x 56 cms

5 Orchids, 1999, watercolour, 57 x 79 cms

6 Fennel and Friends, watercolour, 43 x 58 cms

7 Tulips, watercolour, 37 x 28 cms

8 Mixed Flowers, watercolour, 40 x 58 cms

9 Three Orchids, watercolour, 52 x 36 cms

10 Still Life with Flowers and Leaves, watercolour, 58 x 77 cms

11 Roses, watercolour, 31 x 56 cms

12 Lobsters, watercolour, 65 x 46 cms

13 Mixed Flowers and Jug, watercolour, 57 x 80 cms

14 Irises, etching (edition of 50), 48 x 69 cms

15 Three Fish, watercolour, 38 x 44 cms

16 January Flowers, watercolour, 18 x 32 cms

17 Three Prawns, watercolour, 22 x 19 cms

18 Pavement Leaves, watercolour, 58 x 77 cms

1931 Born Falkirk, Scotland

1949-54 Studied University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art,

MA Hons Fine Art

1956 Married John Houston

Elected Member of Society of Scottish Artists

1961 Elected Member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours

1962 Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy

1962-86 Lecturer in drawing and painting, Edinburgh College of Art

1972 Elected Member of The Royal Scottish Academy

1976 Elected Member of The Royal Academy

1982 Awarded O.B.E.

1983 Elected Member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts

Pimms Award for Work on Paper, Royal Academy

1985 First visit to Japan

1987 Portrait of Mollie Hunter commissioned by The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Portrait of Naomi Mitchison purchased by National Portrait Gallery, London

1988 Watercolour Foundation joint winner Royal Academy

1989-2001 Honorary Doctorates,

DLitt, Heriot Watt

University, University of Edinburgh,

University of Aberdeen, University of Strathclyde,

University of Glasgow

2001 Appointed Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland

2002 Honorary Doctorate, University of Stirling

2003 Honorary Doctorate, University of St Andrews

Made a Dame of the British Empire, DBE

PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS

2011 National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

2001 University of Edinburgh, Talbot Rice Gallery, Festival Exhibition

1999-2001 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

1999 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

1992 D.L.I. Museum, Durham, Retrospective Exhibition

1989 Welsh Arts Council Retrospective Touring Exhibition:

Aberystwyth, Brighton, Bangor, Cardiff, Bath, Lancaster

1981 Scottish Arts Council Retrospective Touring Exhibition:

Edinburgh, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Cardiff, London

1977 Middlesborough Art Gallery

elizabeth blackadder

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal

Bolton Central Museum and Art Gallery

Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery

Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery

The McManus, Dundee Museum and Art Gallery

Edinburgh City Art Centre

Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne

Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery

Government Art Collection

Hove Museum and Art Gallery

Huddersfield Art Gallery

Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery

McNay Art Museum, San Antonio

Middlesbrough Art Gallery

Museum of Modern Art, New York

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC

National Portrait Gallery, London

Paisley Art Gallery

Perth Museum and Art Gallery

Reading Museum and Art Gallery

The Fleming Collection

Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Edinburgh Hospital

Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

Scottish Arts Council

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

Tate Gallery, London

University of Cambridge, Kettle’s Yard

University of Edinburgh

University of Glasgow, Hunterian Art Gallery

University of St Andrews

University of Stirling

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

West Riding County Museum

Wustum Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition

elizabeth blackadder – the nature of things

2 August – 4 September 2013

Exhibition can be viewed online at

www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/elizabethblackadder

ISBN: 978-1-905146-80-2

Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk

Photography by Forth Photography

Printed by Barr Printers

All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any

form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission

of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ

tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk

web www.scottish-gallery.co.uk

Right: Tulips, watercolour, 37 x 28 cms