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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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
web www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Right: Tulips, watercolour, 37 x 28 cms