Art, Friendship, and the Wonder of Colour

Long-standing friends and renowned artists Ishbel Myerscough and Chantal Joffe have regularly taken part in The National Brain Appeal’s A Letter in Mind. Here they talk about what they like about it.

Ishbel Myerscough and Chantal Joffe, have made The National Brain Appeal’s A Letter in Mind exhibition a regular event in their calendars. They have been close friends since properly meeting at Glasgow School of Art in the late 1980s, but their paths crossed at a distance during their school years in north London. 

Ishbel said:

“I left Highbury Fields School when I was 14 and I later found out that Chantal took my place. We were taught by the same art teacher but at different times. I knew Chantal’s sister and we had friends in common, but we didn’t get to know each other until we were at art school.”

Both much-loved and well-established British painters, Chantal is a Royal Academician and Ishbel has nine works at the National Portrait Gallery and won 1995 National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award. They have painted portraits of each other many times and they exhibited in a joint show, Friendship Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery in 2015. 

Now in its 11th year, the charity has had a phenomenal response from artists creating original works on an envelope, responding to the theme ‘The Wonder of Colour’. 

More than 900 artworks will be exhibited anonymously, priced identically at £85. The identity of the artist is revealed at the end of the exhibition, once the artwork has sold. All proceeds from sales will go towards supporting vital projects at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, in Queen Square, London.

Ishbel took part for the first time in 2018 and encouraged Chantal to join her the following year.  

Chantal said:

“I am always glad to take part in A Letter in Mind. The cause feels quite important for lots of reasons. I like that it is egalitarian in that all the artworks are anonymous and all artists are equally represented. I don’t like hierarchy. I much prefer that it is not about names. I think all artists like that. There is less pressure on the artist. It’s not a threat.” 

She continued:

“I also prefer that everybody does the same size and the envelope concept. It is simple and good.”

Ishbel agrees. She said:

“The fact that it is not an auction also appeals to me. All of the artworks are priced the same. I take time over the paintings I submit. I like that someone will be able to buy if for £85, something that they could never get in any other context. I make more effort because of the democracy and accessibility of it.”

Ishbel’s sister, artist and designer Morag Myerscough, is also a regular contributor to A Letter in Mind. They get their artistic talent from their mother.

Ishbel said:

“We always doodled on envelopes as children. My mother, if she saw a bird or a cat through the window, would find the nearest thing on the kitchen table to draw them on, usually an envelope. When we were on the bus she would give us one out of her bag for us to draw on. I have them in my handbag still for the same reason. When we cleared out mum’s house after she died we found so many of her drawings on envelopes.” 

Other artists and celebrities taking part include: fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, illustrators Axel Scheffler and Polly Dunbar, comedian and presenter Harry Hill, journalist and presenter Andrew Marr, illustrator and political cartoonist Chris Riddell OBE, actors Kevin Eldon, James Fleet, Stephen Graham OBE, Sophie Thompson, Hannah Walters, Greg Wise, artists Mark Dion, Morag Myerscough, Orlanda Broom, Mark Entwisle, Frank Kiely and Anita Mangan.