Irises

The lithe and apparently intricate form of the iris appears in many of Blackadder's still lifes. It is a favourite flower and in 1979 she began to document in small sketchbooks each variety as it appeared in the garden. She painted many large iris compositions and in 1987 the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh translated one of these paintings into a tapestry worked up on a very much larger scale (see J. Bumpus, Elizabeth Blackadder, Oxford, 1988, p. 67).