Margaret Patrizio reviews the Elizabeth Blackadder retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery.
The Elizabeth Blackadder retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery is a must see for anyone interested in Scottish art. It is a beautiful exhibition full of colour, composition, rhythm and life in all forms from the very personal perspective of the artist.
Blackadder paints what she sees - her collection of objects, her cats, her garden, her travels. There is beauty, pattern, magnificence, mundane and delight in it all. Not for Blackadder easy immediacy, blunt emotions or crude abstract viscerality. Instead we find a gentle, thoughtful, inquisitive look at life. With expert and precise skill she uses line, colour and composition to show us a life led in peace, calm and intelligence.
I left the exhibition feeling lifted and lighter than I did when I walked through the doors of the gallery and that can’t be a bad thing.
The exhibition is showing at the Scottish National Gallery from 2 Jul 2011 to 2 Jan 2012. Sponsored by Baillie Gifford.
Image: Elizabeth Blackadder, Chinese Still Life with Arum Lillies, 1982. Oil on canvas, 122 x 122. Private collection. © the artist.
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