Artwork of the Month: Kikko on a Rug by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder
28 January 2025
This month, the artwork was chosen by our new Art Collection Officer, Rachel Fereday. For our next artworks of the month, we'd love for you to get involved! Watch this space for updates.
About the artwork:
In the cold month of January, with the evenings just starting to get longer, we were drawn to this cat, sitting cosily on the rug. We would like to invite you to send us your photos of your own cats in their favourite cosy spot! Please get in touch with us via email, or our social media channels.
Kikko on a Rug is created using a technique called Etching. This technique involves using a metal plate made of either iron, copper or zinc. The plate is polished before being coated with a ‘ground’, an acid-resistant varnish or wax. The artist uses a stylus to carve their design into the ground, exposing the metal in these areas. The plate is then submerged in an acid which eats into the exposed metal. Next, the ground is removed and the plate is ready for printing!
Dame Elizabeth would then have coated the plate in ink and then wiped away the excess so there was only ink in the recesses that make up the cat and rug design. Then she would have run the print through a printing press, leaving the Kikko on the rug printed on the paper. The lines of the etching can be seen in the fan design and tassels on the rug, and marks of Kikko's fur and eyes.
About the artist:
Dame Elizabeth Blackadder (1931-2021) was a Scottish painter and printmaker. Born in Falkirk, Scotland, she studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, where she subsequently lectured from 1962 until her retirement in 1986. She was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy of Arts. Her work was awarded several accolades, including: the Guthrie Award, the Pimms Award for Work on Paper, and the Royal Academy’s Watercolour Foundation Award.
Blackadder worked with a variety of media and techniques, including: oil paints, watercolours, drawing, etching, and screenprinting. She is well known for her portraits and landscapes, as well as her depictions of cats and intricate studies of flowers. Her work was influenced by her travels in Europe, the USA and Japan.
Arts St George’s (part of St George’s Hospital Charity) is the arts programme for St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. To find out more, follow us on socials @artsstgeorges, or follow Arts St George's - St George's Hospital Charity
The 'Our Hospital: conserving, curating and responding to St George’s Art and Heritage Collection’ is a three-year project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and made possible by money raised by National Lottery players. The project is focusing on conserving, cataloguing, reinterpreting and digitising St George’s Hospital’s unique Art and Heritage Collection so it can be enjoyed by many more people.
