Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour | Opening Talk

Join us for a special opening day talk celebrating Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour. Together the Dovecot Curator Heather Carroll and artist Alexander Moffat RSA will offer an insight into Elizabeth Blackadder’s enduring fascination with colour and her decades-long collaboration with the Tapestry Studio. Moffatt was a student at ECA at the same time as Elizabeth Blackadder and John Houston lectured there, and later joined them at the RSA as a fellow Academician. He wrote the introduction to the catalogue for the RSA's 2023 exhibition of Blackadder and Houston's work, A Journey Shared.

Enjoy exclusive early access to the exhibition from 11am, ahead of the public opening. The show brings together works from the Royal Scottish Academy alongside Dovecot’s celebrated textiles, including the debut of a new rug inspired by The Red Bouquet, 1975.

The exhibition forms part of RSA200: Celebrating Together, Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026.

Moffat was born in Dunfermline in 1943 and studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art (1960-1964). He became Chairman of the New 57 Gallery in Edinburgh in 1968, a position he held until 1978. In 1979 he joined the staff of Glasgow School of Art where he was Head of the Painting Department from 1992 until his retirement in 2005. His paintings are represented in many collections in the UK and in the Yale Centre for British Art, USA, and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. He was awarded an OBE for his services to the arts in 2006.

Every ticket sold supports the work of The Dovecot Foundation to advance visual art, craft and design in all its forms.

Please note that tickets are non-refundable, non-transferable and may not be exchanged.

If you are unable to attend an event please contact Dovecot on 0131 550 3660 or info@dovecotstudios.com to inform the Front of House Team.

Image: 

Elizabeth Blackadder RSA 1931-2021
Untitled: Still Life with Boxes, Red Ground, 1972
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 142.5 cm

© Royal Scottish Academy