The nature of things, elizabeth blackadder

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 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

elizabeth blackadder 1931 1949-54 1956 1961 1962 1962-86 1972 1976 1982 1983 1985 1987 1988 1989-2001

2001 2002 2003

2011 2001 1999-2001 1999 1992 1989 1981 1977

Born Falkirk, Scotland Studied University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, MA Hons Fine Art Married John Houston Elected Member of Society of Scottish Artists Elected Member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy Lecturer in drawing and painting, Edinburgh College of Art Elected Member of The Royal Scottish Academy Elected Member of The Royal Academy Awarded O.B.E. Elected Member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts Pimms Award for Work on Paper, Royal Academy First visit to Japan Portrait of Mollie Hunter commissioned by The Scottish National Portrait Gallery Portrait of Naomi Mitchison purchased by National Portrait Gallery, London Watercolour Foundation joint winner Royal Academy Honorary Doctorates, DLitt, Heriot Watt University, University of Edinburgh, University of Aberdeen, University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow Appointed Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland Honorary Doctorate, University of Stirling Honorary Doctorate, University of St Andrews Made a Dame of the British Empire, DBE PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh University of Edinburgh, Talbot Rice Gallery, Festival Exhibition Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh D.L.I. Museum, Durham, Retrospective Exhibition Welsh Arts Council Retrospective Touring Exhibition: Aberystwyth, Brighton, Bangor, Cardiff, Bath, Lancaster Scottish Arts Council Retrospective Touring Exhibition: Edinburgh, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Cardiff, London 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 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