Eight months to paint — the Houston Blackadder sabbatical

Eight months to paint — the Houston Blackadder sabbatical

One of the greatest pleasures of 2024 has been the opportunity to spend an extended period concentrating almost entirely on painting, thanks to the RSA Houston Blackadder Mid-Career Painting Prize, which I was fortunate enough to receive in 2023.

The £20,000 award enabled me to take an eight-month sabbatical from my teaching commitments at the University of Edinburgh. After more than three decades of squeezing studio time around the academic calendar, this was something of a revelation.

I was able to work on several ambitious canvases, develop ideas without the usual interruptions and pursue my increasingly elaborate visions of Edinburgh, its architecture, infrastructure and imagined futures.

Of course, having more time doesn’t necessarily make painting any easier. It simply provides more opportunities to change your mind, paint things out and start again.

Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful opportunity, and one that has made me think rather seriously about how I might organise the next chapter of my working life.

Read about the award and the work it supported.