Painterly + Apples + Studio Vibes
What To Do With All the Apples
It’s been a bumper year for apples in my mum’s garden—the two trees right next to my studio have been showing off for weeks. Last night we finally surrendered to the abundance and had a batch-cooking evening together: mountains of chopped apples, lots of cinnamon, and… my very first chutney.
I had no idea you’re supposed to leave chutney for three whole months before eating it. Three! So what I thought would be lovely Christmas jars have now become unexpected Easter gifts. A lesson in patience, apparently delivered via fruit.
This morning the apples were still on my mind, so I finally painted Day 548 of my daily practice: shapes with patterns. I had drawn it back on the 30th of July but never painted it in. The colours came straight from the apple trees outside the studio—those greens, rust red fence and blue studio that actually lets the painting sit somewhere between summer and autumn. I updated my colour diary at the same time, which felt like bottling a little of the garden’s brightness, the same way we bottled chutney last night.
655 Days of Morning Ritual
Today is Day 655 of my morning ritual: drawing whatever is in front of me as I eat breakfast. It’s such a simple practice, but it’s changed everything about how my day begins. Before I even reach for my phone, before emails or errands or tasks, I get to put pencil—or paintbrush—to paper. It makes even the busiest workday feel like it starts with a breath.
People always ask how I decide what to draw each day, and the truth is: I don’t. I follow my List of 10.
Every morning I move onto the next one, then start again once I reach number 10. It removes the pressure of choosing, and each item gives my creativity a tiny prompt—a constraint that somehow opens things up instead of closing them in.
My List of 10
Don’t take the pencil off the paper
No lines allowed
Cross-hatch
Wet-on-wet
Outside shapes only
Draw the shelves
Only horizontal straight lines
Shapes, then add pattern inside each
Only use dots
Paint the shapes, then use a continuous line to fill in the details
People talk about morning pages, meditation, journaling—but for me, it’s this. Drawing the same shelf for the fiftieth time. Making a pattern out of my tea mugs, coffee cup or bowl of porridge. Trying out different techniques with crayons, paint, crayon paper, collage, inks, oil bars, etc. And today: letting a tree-full of apples nudge me back into colour and rhythm of the British Seasons.
Maybe that’s the real joy of a bumper crop—you get more than apples. You get a nudge, a beginning, a reason to make something.
