Ishbel studied at Glasgow and the Slade Schools of Art, and works in London. In 1995 she won the National Portrait Gallery's annual BP Portrait Award competition and as a result was commissioned to paint Helen Mirren's portrait for the collection and subsequently Sir Willard White. Her 1991 portrait Two Girls, was displayed in the exhibition Self at the Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK in 2015 and at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until November 2016. Her work was presented in a joint display Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough at the National Portrait Gallery in 2015, capturing their very particular artistic collaboration, and was included in the exhibitions Only Connect, Royal Academy of Arts, Keeper's House, London, 2017; Cranach: Artist and Innovator, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 2020; Real Families, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2023; Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, Hayward Gallery touring exhibition curated by Hettie Judah, 2024; and Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists, Pallant House, Chichester, 2025.
