Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI
Elizabeth Blackadder was born in Falkirk in 1931. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1949 until 1954 under Robert Henderson Blyth and William Gillies. In 1956 she married artist and fellow Scottish painter John Houston. She taught at Edinburgh College of Art from 1962 until her retirement in 1986. In 1972, Blackadder was elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and in 1976 she gained entry at the Royal Academy, London – the first woman to be elected into both institutions. In 2001, Elizabeth was made the first female Artist Limner by HRH The Queen, a position within the Royal Household unique to Scotland.