Elizabeth Blackadder Prints

Elizabeth Blackadder has been respected as a printmaker for over five decades and, during that time, has experimented with a range of diverse media including etching, aquatint, drypoint, woodcut, screenprint, monoprint and lithography. This book illustrates and catalogues every published print made by Blackadder from the 1950s to the 2002. Christopher Allan examines these media one by one to reveal how Blackadder has successfully exploited the characteristics of each printmaking method to create a range of original prints. Blackadder first experimented with printmaking during her student days in the early 1950s and her first prints were published in 1958. The beginnings of her career coincided with the explosion of printmaking during the 1960s when the discipline became increasingly recognized alongside painting and sculpture. Throughout this period and into the 1970s, Blackadder worked with a range of studios including Curwen Studio, The Mercury Gallery, Peacock Printers in Aberdeen and the Glasgow Print Studio. There she experimented with innovations in printmaking techniques, as well as re-engaging with methods which she had employed previously such as screenprinting. Illustrated with over 80 colour reproductions, the volume presents Blackadder's prints thematically, revealing her constant return to images of the natural world: from landscapes and animals, to orchids and other plants. A limited edition, of 75 signed copies, includes the original print, "Cat and Orchid", in a slipcase (ISBN 0 85331 887 5).