Blackadder, Elizabeth Violet, Dame, DBE OBE RA RSA
1931 – 2021
Elizabeth Blackadder studied Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University from 1949 until 1954. In 1954 she was awarded the RSA Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and travelled to Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia. In 1955 to 1956 she was awarded another travelling scholarship from Edinburgh College of Art and she travelled to Italy. She married the artist John Houston RSA in 1956. After qualifying as a teacher from Moray House in 1959 she taught at secondary school level before being appointed as a full time teacher at Edinburgh College of Art in 1962. Over the next few years she proceeded to travel extensively visiting Europe, America and Japan. In 1982 she was awarded an OBE and in 1986 she retired from ECA. In 2003 she was made a Dame. She has exhibited at the RSA from 1955, she became an Associate Member of the RSA in 1963 and an Academician in 1972. In 1976 she became a Royal Academician, becoming the first woman to be an elected member of both the RA and the RSA. She was made a Dame in 2003. She died at her Edinburgh home after a short illness, her final years having been marked by Alzheimer's disease.
