Newsletter

In conversation  ·  No. 18

On working alone, together

The painter Ines Morrow and the novelist Lea Park have shared a wall for six years and never met. We sat them at one table.

InesI start before the light is any good. By the time it is, I have already made the mistakes I needed to make.

LeaThe hard part isn’t the writing. It’s the two hours of pretending not to write first.

InesThrough the wall I hear her typing stop and start. It’s the nearest thing I have to a colleague.

Interview by Sam Oduya  ·  12 min read  ·  Read the conversation

A woman with fair hair drawing at a table by the window, a cup of tea beside her

Ines at the table she draws on every morning.

A hand mixing watercolour in a small palette, brushes standing in a jar

Watercolours, mixed before seven.

Two potted plants and a glass of water on a wooden shelf against a pale wall

The shelf on her side of the wall.

A woman in a cream jumper reading a page at the kitchen counter

Lea, reading back yesterday’s pages.

An open notebook and a red cup on a window table, a blurred street outside

The notebook comes before the laptop.

A woman with dark hair writing by hand at a desk, pencils in a pot beside her

Lea at her desk, the other side of the wall.

Ines Morrow  Painter

Lea Park  Novelist