Still life with artichoke

Elizabeth Blackadder was born in Falkirk in 1931, her mother ensured that she had a proper education and in 1949 she enrolled in the new Fine Art degree course at Edinburgh. Teaching was traditionally academic, training the eye through painting and drawing, however her teachers William Gillies, William MacTaggart and Robin Philipson were early influences on her work and encouraged her to develop an individual voice. She was elected R.S.A. in 1972 and R.A. in 1976; the first woman to hold both honours and in 1982 she was awarded the O.B.E. Her still life forms are simplified, flattened, seen from above, head on or both simultaneously. She offers the following explanation for her interest in the subject:
'It wasn't the idea of painting objects that interested me, but of using the subject as a means of exploring all kinds of visual imagery in an abstract way without being held to any kind of realism.' (see J. Bumpus Elizabeth Blackadder, Oxford, 1988).
Yet, as in the present picture, her still lives still have some point of reference in the real world which triggers the assembly of other objects.