Fifeshire Farm
Fifeshire Farm (1960) speaks to Elizabeth Blackadder’s fascination with nature that began during childhood. The wild and wind-beaten trees relate to the artist’s dislike of ‘effete’ garden flowers, and subsequent preference for a ‘laissez-faire’ gardening style, with neo-Romantic landscapes a frequent subject of her work.
Blackadder first experimented with printmaking whilst studying at Edinburgh in the early 1950s. She proceeded to produce various lithographs in the 1960s with the Curwen Studio, during a period of renewed interest in the medium. This particular print was made in the same year as Italian Landscape (1960) – a lithograph that shares the restrained colour palette and depiction of harsh-black trees. Recipient of a travel scholarship, Blackadder created these prints following nine months in Italy, beginning from summer 1955. The bare winter trees of Tuscany appealed to the artist, and this continued interest is apparent in Fifeshire Farm. Similar forms are transposed to depict the harsh shrubbery of Fifeshire (or Fife), an area of eastern Scotland and birthplace of her husband and travel partner, John Houston.