Blackadder's signature subjects include landscapes, cats, flowers, still-lifes and portraits. Blackadder's work is based in the traditions of the Edinburgh School, but is strongly influenced by Japanese aesthetics. Characteristically, she carefully arranges objects in a shallow pictorial space to create intriguing and subtly decorative images.

Born in Falkirk (1931), Elizabeth Blackadder studied at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art from 1949 to 1954. Blackadder's first solo exhibition was held in 1959 at 57 Gallery, Edinburgh. Since then, solo exhibitions of her work have been held almost every year to date, both nationally and internationally. Blackadder has been working with GPS since 1985. She has also participated extensively in group exhibitions around the world. Blackadder has works in a number of prestigious public collections around the world such as: Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen; Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and the Scottish Arts Council. Her work has also appeared on a series of Royal Mail stamps.

Blackadder has received a number of awards, including the Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy (1962) and the Pimms Award for Work on Paper (Royal Academy, 1983). She was joint-winner of the Royal Academy's Watercolour Foundation Award in 1988. Blackadder was elected Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972, a Royal Academician in 1976 and a Member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1983. She is an Honorary Member of the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has also received Honorary Doctorates from four Scottish universities. In 2001 she was appointed Her Majesty's Painter and Limner in Scotland. Blackadder lives and works in Edinburgh.