Royal Drawing School Artistic Director Ishbel Myerscough RA joins the School’s Director, Harrie Parker, for a conversation interspersed with drawing prompts led by Ishbel, with model Arnold Soazandry.

Myerscough invites the audience into her meticulous drawing process of working directly from life, encouraging attendees to make drawings of their own as she talks through her practice as an artist, her approach as a teacher at the Drawing School, and the role that different drawing exercises can play in shaping and reshaping our perception of everyday life.

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

Ishbel Myerscough (b. 1968) studied at Glasgow school of Art from 1987-91. After graduating she painted in a studio in Glasgow for two years, before going on to the Slade School of Art to do a postgraduate course in 1993.

At the end of her studies she was awarded a travel scholarship to New York. On returning to England she had her second exhibition with Anthony Mould, then travelled back to the USA, invited by Robert and Susan Summers to paint in their studios on their artist programme in Connecticut. Finally, she settled in London and has lived and worked here since. She is currently Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School.

She won the National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award in 1995 and has since completed two portrait commissions for the Gallery’s collection, of Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Willard White.