The portrait artist Adele Wagstaff trained at Newcastle University and the Slade School of Fine Art. She has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the BP Portrait Award and her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. Alongside her work in the UK she spends time in Egypt, working on portraits of people along the Nile. Adele teaches a wide range of students, including life classes at the Royal Academy of Arts, which is where we first met. In this conversation we explore similarities and differences between our areas of work.