Chantal Joffe & Ishbel Myerscough Creative Conversation

Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough met at Glasgow School of Art in 1987, where they both studied Fine Art. As their friendship developed, they began to paint each other — a practice that has continued ever since. In 2015, they exhibited together in a joint show at the National Portrait Gallery entitled 'Friendship Portraits'.

Though markedly different in style, they share an ability to render a sense of truth in their sitters. Chantal brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Her brushwork is deceptively casual; whether in images a few inches square or ten feet high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Ishbel’s paintings have been described by curator Sarah Howgate as demonstrating a ‘clear, forensic vision’. Unafraid to reveal the more awkward aspects of the physical body, her meticulous observation of details — pimples, wrinkles, tattoos, moles, freckles, bulges, veins, and in particular, hair — reveals, as she puts it, "the wider things reflected in even the smallest life you lead."

Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough discuss their long-standing friendship and collaborative portrait practice in conversation with writer and curator William Feaver.

Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Woollaston Prize in 2006. Solo exhibitions include The Lowry, Manchester (2017). Joffe is represented by Victoria Miro, London.

Ishbel Myerscough studied at Glasgow and the Slade Schools of Art; she won the National Portrait Gallery’s annual BP Portrait Award in 1995 and is represented by Flowers Gallery.