British painter and printmaker. She was born at Falkirk and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University, 1949–55. She works in oil and watercolour ‘with no particular preference’ (in her own words). ‘The work falls into two main areas, landscape and still life—occasionally figures…I like to work on several paintings at the same time, but work slowly, and each painting, watercolours included, may take months to complete.’ Duncan Macmillan (Scottish Art 1460–1990, 1990) describes her paintings of flowers and plants as ‘based on a description that is so fastidious it becomes poetic’. Blackadder is also a prolific printmaker and has occasionally executed portrait commissions.