Based in London, the Royal Drawing School is an educational charity, and one of the only institutions in the world, dedicated to the teaching and practise of drawing from observation. Over a thousand students, aged from eight to eighty, take part in its courses every week. The School was founded in 2000 by HRH The Prince of Wales and artist Catherine Goodman. Students of the Royal Drawing School's MA-level postgraduate programme, The Drawing Year, visit Pignano every summer as part of their studies. For these talented young professional artists, the light and beauty of Tuscany, framed by the welcoming hospitality of Pignano, offers an intensive, concentrated and often transformative period of drawing and painting in the landscape.
A number of the School's alumni and faculty visit Pignano throughout the year, as part of the prestigious Artist Residency Programme. Resident artists are provided with studio space and accommodation for an extended period of time, and many examples of their work are hanging in the public spaces and bedrooms of Borgo Pignano.
Resident artists from the School include Clara Drummond (winner of the BP Portrait Award 2016), Kathryn Maple (winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014 and 2016), Jessie Makinson (winner of the Marmite Prize for Painting 2016) and Kristian Fletcher (winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize Student Award 2013).
www.royaldrawingschool.org
