The sixth person to be honoured with the much-coveted Edinburgh Award has received her accolade at the City Chambers tonight. Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, the Queen’s Painter in Scotland, received an engraved Loving Cup at the ceremony, presented by the Lord Provost.
Ron Butlin, the Edinburgh Makar, recited a poem commissioned especially for the occasion.
An impression of her handprints has been immortalised on a flagstone in the City Chambers quadrangle alongside those of previous Edinburgh Award recipients Ian Rankin, JK Rowling, George Kerr, Sir Chris Hoy and Professor Peter Higgs.
Donald Wilson, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, said:- “I am delighted to present the 2012 Edinburgh Award to Dame Elizabeth, widely thought of as one of Scotland’s finest painters.
“The Edinburgh Award enables the people of Edinburgh to pay a lasting tribute to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the city, and Dame Elizabeth has done exactly that by devoting her life to the creation of wonderful pictures that delight and inspire all who see them.
“She is a deserved recipient of one of our most prestigious civic awards.”
Arthur Watson, President, Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, said:- “Elizabeth Blackadder is an artist of rare distinction – the first woman to be honoured as the Queen’s Painter and Limner in Scotland, a member of both the Royal Academy in London and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.
“Elizabeth is a painter greatly respected by her peers but more importantly an artist whose works are loved and collected, both originals and in reproduction, by many, many people in Scotland and further afield.”
Ms Blackadder is a Dame of the British Empire. She was honoured in 2011 by the National Galleries of Scotland with a career retrospective exhibition of her work.
The Edinburgh Award decision is taken by a judging panel chaired by the Lord Provost, with representatives from all political groups on the City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.
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