Dame Elizabeth Blackadder Oriental Poppies, 2010

Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RA was born in Falkirk in 1931. She studied at ECA from 1949 until 1954 under Robert Henderson Blyth and William Gillies among others and enjoyed travelling scholarships to southern Europe and Italy.

In 1956 she married artist John Houston and began teaching in Edinburgh. One of Scotland's greatest artists, she is as well known in London. During her travels, which ncluded extensive visits to the Far East and regular trips to Europe, she bought back a cornucopia of objects, which appear in her compositions.