Elizabeth Blackadder

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Flowers on an Indian Cloth, 1965, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, DBE, RA (born 1931) is a Scottish painter and printmaker. She is the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy.

Born in Falkirk, she studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh College of Art, where she lectured from 1962 until her retirement in 1986. Her early works are principally landscapes, influenced by her visits to Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia. In the 1960s she acquired a growing reputation for her paintings of flowers, Flowers on an Indian Cloth being a notable example. She also painted portraits, and her later work came to be dominated by still life, often featuring cats or flowers.

The composition of her still life is influenced by Japanese art and the backgrounds are often left blank. Her paintings sometimes also include printed or collage elements. Her work can be seen at the Tate Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and has appeared on a series of Royal Mail stamps. She was appointed an OBE in 1982, promoted to DBE in 2003, and is married to the painter John Houston.

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