Dovecot Studios operates as a working textile facility in Edinburgh’s former Infirmary Street Baths, where visitors routinely watch weavers operate large-scale looms on the gallery floor. This summer, the venue hosts two distinct historical surveys: the first examines the late Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, while the second traces sixty years of production by the London costume house Cosprop.
Elizabeth Blackadder and the RSA Bicentenary
Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour opens 20 June. The exhibition marks five years since the artist’s death and coincides heavily with the Royal Scottish Academy’s bicentenary.
While Blackadder built a highly successful commercial career through her watercolours of cats, orchids, and travel ephemera, she also maintained deep institutional ties, remaining the first woman elected to both the Royal Academy in London and the Royal Scottish Academy. Heather Carroll, Exhibitions Manager at Dovecot, views Blackadder’s administrative work as central to her legacy.
‘Elizabeth Blackadder was elected an Associate Member of the RSA in 1963, and became an Academician in 1972,’ said Carroll. ‘Throughout her long tenure as an Academician, she made a sustained and enthusiastic contribution to the RSA’s committees and activities.’
The Academy provided a foundation for Blackadder and her husband, the painter John Houston, offering a practical means for career longevity. Carroll notes that this environment offered a vital foundation for the artistic couple:
‘The RSA constituted an integral community for Blackadder and her husband, the artist John Houston, offering a network of professional contacts and friends, whilst also affording access to a breadth of historic and contemporary artistic ideas from around the country,’ said Carroll.
The couple maintained close professional relationships with their contemporaries, cementing their influence within the Scottish arts establishment over several decades.
‘Many artists they had befriended as students continued working as artists and teachers around Scotland and later became Academicians, such as Frances Walker, George Donald and Robert Steedman,’ Carroll explained, emphasizing the artist’s dedication to her peers. ‘Within her lifetime Blackadder was lauded as a highly significant Scottish painter and printmaker, but her tireless investment of time and energy in RSA initiatives suggests that she saw herself as part of the nation’s artistic nexus, responsible for shaping and sustaining opportunities for future artists and Academicians, as her antecedent Academicians had done before her.’
‘The RSA constituted an integral community for Blackadder and her husband, the artist John Houston, offering a network of professional contacts and friends, whilst also affording access to a breadth of historic and contemporary artistic ideas from around the country,’ said Carroll.
Institutional Legacy at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA)
Blackadder did not limit her institutional support to committee work; she also returned to Edinburgh College of Art as a lecturer. Possessing little patience for poor execution, she continually pushed her students to study the technical proficiency of earlier Scottish painters.
‘Throughout her career Blackadder demonstrated a commitment to supporting the work of new generations of artists,’ said Carroll. ‘She appreciated the impact other artists’ ideas had had on the development of her own practice, particularly during her studies at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1950s and throughout the formative 1960s.’
Her teaching methodology focused strictly on fundamental skills and historical awareness, demanding rigorous precision.
‘When she returned to ECA as a lecturer, she emphasised to her students the importance of disciplined draughtsmanship following the example of their Scottish artistic antecedents, from William Gillies and Anne Redpath to David Wilkie and Allan Ramsay,’ said Carroll.
This commitment culminated in substantial financial gifts following her death, which aimed to underwrite the next generation of Scottish talent directly.
‘The integral nature of Blackadder’s institutional relationship with the RSA is underlined by her decision to bequeath a legacy gift to the RSA of her estate in 2021,’ Carroll noted. ‘This included the contents of her studio and that of John Houston’s, out of which a study collection would be created, allowing future generations of artists and researchers access to Blackadder and Houston’s work.’
The financial component of the estate now funds several artistic grants to sustain this educational vision.
‘The bequest also provided legacy funding to initiate several awards for artists at various career stages, including the RSA Blackadder Houston Student Travel Award, the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Travel Award, and the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Painting Award,’ said Carroll. ‘Her bequest also contributes funding towards the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition which champions emerging Scottish artists.’
Translating Paint to Thread: Tapestry Weaving at Dovecot Studios
Dovecot worked closely with Blackadder for fifty years, translating her distinct designs into large-scale woven pieces. The upcoming exhibition includes the premiere of The Red Bouquet, a new textile work based on a 1975 painting. To populate the gallery space, curators pulled heavily from the Blackadder-Houston Bequest.
‘The exhibition’s focus on colours invites visitors to take a closer look at Blackadder’s work,’ said Carroll. ‘Featuring over 25 artworks from the Blackadder-Houston Bequest, the exhibition will feature Blackadder’s work across oil painting, watercolours, printmaking… all of which display an expert understanding of colour.’
Her still life compositions often removed background context, floating objects in negative space to create complex visual arrangements. Reflecting on this unique style, Carroll added:
‘Many of Blackadder’s still lifes, for example, verge on abstract, which she engaged with through playful placements of objects – fascinated by the different effects that provided on colour and space,’ said Carroll. ‘She was a true artist, working until the end of her life and it is a privilege to show her work at Dovecot.’
Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop Screen Costumes
Later in the summer, Dovecot shifts focus to cinematic production. Running from 18 July 2026 to 9 January 2027, Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop marks the Scottish debut for the renowned costume house.
Cosprop supplies period clothing for major film and television productions, and this presentation features iconic garments worn by actors including Maggie Smith, Johnny Depp, Nicole Kidman, and Helena Bonham Carter. Original design drawings will sit directly alongside the final screen-worn pieces. The exhibition is curated by Keith Lodwick, who considers the venue a perfect fit for the display:
‘As a landmark space for contemporary art, craft and design, Dovecot is the ideal place to highlight and celebrate the hand-crafted methods of Cosprop,’ said Lodwick.
While the studio relies heavily on analogue skill over mass manufacturing, the costume house shares a matching dedication to traditional production methods.
‘Both organisations have a shared creative mission between design and realisation with exquisite attention to detail,’ Lodwick observed. ‘Both organisations have also invested in maintaining handcrafted methods and techniques, some of which are being lost.’
Lodwick positions the venue as a natural host for this specific display, adding:
‘With this in mind, Dovecot is a centre of excellence and an ideal platform to present Costume Couture as the go-to-place for period clothing for stage and screen,’ said Lodwick.
The Fitting Room Floor: The Art of Period Costume Design
The curators position costume design as a primary artistic discipline, pushing back against the idea of wardrobe as a secondary technical service.
‘Costume design is art – along with production design and cinematography – all these artforms are fused together to create a cinematic universe that we – the audience – step into and believe,’ said Lodwick. ‘The art of realising characters from the pages of a script to the people that we see on the screen is all part of the magic of the moving image. Costume Couture goes behind the curtain to see how the ‘practical magic’ is realised.’
Translating two-dimensional sketches into physical garments requires constant adjustment throughout production.
‘The script to screen design process can be organic,’ Lodwick explained. ‘A costume designer will have mood boards, designs and reference material for their vision and these become important guides in the development of costume.’
Ultimately, the actors and makers dictate the final shape of the clothing, as fabric behaves differently on a moving body than on a flat page.
‘At Cosprop, in the fitting room process and in the making process, sometimes costumes develop in a new and interesting way, supervised by John Bright and the designer,’ said Lodwick. ‘Cosprop aims to achieve the designer’s vision with everyone working together to reach the same goal – believable characters.’
Curation and Construction: Selecting Iconic Film Garments
Because the London archive contains thousands of garments, Lodwick worked directly with Cosprop founder John Bright to narrow the massive inventory.
‘Curating the exhibition with John Bright involved examining the history of the organisation and looking at which projects expanded the remit of the organisation, demonstrated a successful collaboration or enhanced the reputation of Cosprop,’ said Lodwick.
Naturally, they prioritised productions that won major industry recognition.
‘There were certain costumes – award-winning – which we felt were too important to miss out,’ said Lodwick.
The curation also looks past single-character wardrobes to highlight moments where the company acted as a complete manufacturing engine, defining the visual baseline of a project. This total aesthetic control is best demonstrated through the company’s work with costume designer Anthony Powell on the 1979 film Tess, where the workshop built the clothing infrastructure from scratch.
‘Landmark projects such as Tess (1979, Costume Designer Anthony Powell) were an example of virtually the entire film’s costumes being created at Cosprop, which gives the film a strong visual identity,’ said Lodwick.
The exhibition focuses closely on the technical proficiency required to build period clothing, especially since high-definition cameras expose poor stitching immediately. Because the garments must withstand intense visual scrutiny, precision is paramount.
‘Costume design is art – along with production design and cinematography – all these artforms are fused together to create a cinematic universe that we – the audience – step into and believe,’ said Lodwick.
‘Some costumes were selected because of their very detailed construction, and the exhibition allows the audience to see this beautiful craftwork up close and in more detail,’ said Lodwick.
The Reality of the Workbench: Celebrating Analogue Craftsmanship
Blackadder’s watercolours and Cosprop’s period costumes might sit at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum, but placing them back-to-back on Infirmary Street makes an odd kind of sense. Dovecot Studios is not a passive gallery space; it is an active, working floor.
By following a retrospective of a Scottish fine art heavyweight with a close examination of Hollywood’s leading historical tailors, Dovecot underlines its role as a champion of the physical, analogue act of making things. Whether that involves translating a Blackadder still life onto a loom or stitching a nineteenth-century bodice for the camera, the focus remains firmly on the workbench.
Ultimately, it stands as a rare space in Edinburgh (and beyond) where the long hours spent constructing art matter just as much as the finished image.
Featured Image: Elizabeth Blackadder with Tapestry, credit Dovecot Studios
Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour
Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour will run at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, from Saturday 20th June until Saturday 14th November 2026. For tickets or more information, click here: https://dovecotstudios.com/exhibitions/elizabeth-blackadder-a-life-in-colour
Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop
Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop will run at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, from Saturday 18th July 2026 until Saturday 16th January 2027. For tickets or more information, click here: https://dovecotstudios.com/exhibitions/costume-couture
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