Royal Drawing School faculty member Dilip Sur is joined by the School’s Director, Harrie Parker, and model Arnold Soazandry for a talk and drawing workshop. Dilip shares his thoughtful and deeply observational approach to drawing while inviting the audience to explore their own artistic voice through a series of drawing prompts. Throughout the talk, he discusses his upbringing, the importance of making mistakes, the poetic quality of negative space, and the cosmological inquiry at the heart of his practice.

Dilip invites the audience to draw with both hands and respond to the model in movement, encouraging them to loosen control and trust their responses. As he puts it, “You can go with full courage. And main thing is a freedom to make mistakes.” You can also draw along with the talk, responding to Arnold’s poses or the world around you. 

This conversation formed part of our Drawing Weekender, which took place over the 18th and 19th of July 2026 in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth at their Somerset gallery.

Biography

‘His paintings capture a psychological state of human beings and the constant flux they undergo or the reverie the human mind is absorbed in. Sur’s recent work employs a literal vastness in the way space is unfolded and then released to extend meaning […] representing a vast phenomenon within a restrained language.’ - Peter de Francia (RCA)

Dilip Sur studied Painting and Sculpture at the Government College of Art in Calcutta before completing his MA in Painting at the College of Art in New Delhi, India. Subsequently he continued his postgraduate education in Painting at Byam Shaw School of Art (UAL) in London.

National and international awards and include the British Council Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship, the UNESCO Fellowship at the European Ceramics Centre at Den Bosch in the Netherlands, the Delfina Artist Residency in Spain, the Kunstbrucke Artist Residency in Berlin, the Evelyn Williams Drawing Fellowship at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Art, and the Kakslauttanen Finnish Arts Council Residency.

Dilip has exhibited in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belgium, South Korea and India. Solo exhibitions include the Grosvenor Gallery in London, the Guild Gallery in Bombay, and The Schoo Gallery in Amsterdam.

He has been teaching Drawing at the Royal College of Art since 1996 and he is currently teaching at Imperial College and King’s College, London.

Sur collaborated with Mike Figgis on the project, Just Tell The Truth, at the Royal Opera House. He has also spent the past five years collaborating with Kings College London on Drawing Life.

His works have been published in recent book: ‘Passages - Indian Art Today’ by Gerard A. Goodrow & Julia Ritterskamp.