ELIZABETH BLACKADDER 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

elizabeth blackadder

1931 Born Falkirk, Scotland 1949-54 Studied University of Edinburgh and , MA Hons Fine Art 1956 Married 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 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 , 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