The Don Bachardy Fellowship at the Royal Drawing School enables a post-graduate artist from outside the United Kingdom to join the Royal Drawing School during the Summer Term each year. Artists applying for the fellowship should show evidence of observational drawing in their practice. The purpose of the fellowship is to help support an emerging artist and to nurture drawing as their foundation skill.
The fellowship is named after the Californian portrait painter, Don Bachardy (b. 1934), who studied at the Slade in 1961, had his first show at the Redfern Gallery in Mayfair that year, and has gone on to draw and paint over 10,000 portraits from life.
The next Don Bachardy Fellowship will take place during the Royal Drawing School’s Summer Term: 28 April – 5 July 2025. The Don Bachardy Fellow will spend 3 full days per week for ten weeks, drawing alongside postgraduate students studying on the Royal Drawing School’s MA level programme, The Drawing Year, as well as students on the Public Programme. Courses are taught by faculty of over 75 practising artists.
The Fellow will be invited to curate their own programme, choosing from over 60+ different drawing courses: from drawing out of house in London’s streets and green spaces, to life drawing, and drawing from art in major museums and galleries, as well as intaglio printmaking courses. The artist will also be provided with a shared studio space alongside the School’s postgraduate-level Students.
The Fellow will also have the opportunity to attend our lecture series, which includes in-conversations with leading contemporary artists and art history lectures.
To assist with travel and accommodation costs, the Don Bachardy Fellow will be awarded a 5,000 USD stipend.