Elizabeth Blackadder was born in Falkirk in 1931. She studied at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art. In 1954 she was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship by the Royal Scottish Academy, which took her to southern Europe. Blackadder also received an Andrew Grant Post-Graduate Scholarship. In 1955 she was awarded another Travelling Scholarship and spent nine months in Italy. In 1956 Blackadder married the painter, John Houston and lectured in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 1962 to 1986.

Elizabeth Blackadder is one of Scotland's greatest artists. She has received a number of art awards, including the Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy (1962) and the Pimms Award for Work on Paper (Royal Academy, 1983). She was joint-winner of the Royal Academy Watercolour Foundation Award in 1988.

Elizabeth Blackadder was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy. She was elected Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972, a Royal Academician in 1976 and a Member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1983. She is an Honorary Member of the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has also received Honorary Doctorates from four Scottish universities. In 2001 she was appointed Her Majesty's Painter and Limner in Scotland.

Elizabeth Blackadder's early art works were principally landscapes, influenced by visits to Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia. In the 1960s she acquired a growing reputation for her paintings of flowers, Flowers on an Indian Cloth being a notable example. She also painted portraits, and her later art work came to be dominated by still life and landscape, often featuring cats or flowers.

The composition of Elizabeth Blackadder's still life paintings is influenced by Japanese art on scrolls and the backgrounds are often left blank. Her paintings sometimes also include printed or collage elements. Her art work can be seen at the Tate Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and has appeared on a series of Royal Mail stamps.

Elizabeth Blackadder Red Rag Gallery