In my other capacity, working at the National Galleries of Scotland I have been leading a lot of tours of the current Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition. Having previously known mainly the flower paintings of this Scottish artist, which would be the obvious choice for a 'Rag Rose' blog, I have been pleasantly surprised in the discovery of her 'Japanese' works of the 1980s and 90s.

Above is Blackadder's 'Still-Life, Gold and White' (1980) with its fresh palette and carefully spaced set of objects sitting in their own Zen-like arrangement, teetering in that odd realm between the figurative and the abstract. I have used this painting as inspiration for a set of textile experiments, taking from Blackadder's use of colour and composition. In the last piece I have used a stitch inspired by Japanese Boro textiles, to continue the Eastern theme. I hope you like the results!