Last November, I visited the Tracey Emin Artist Residency (TEAR) in Margate. The residency programme only accepts painters, and lasts 15 months. But as I walked around the studio spaces, I didn’t just see paintings, but dozens of leaves of paper: drawings, etchings and poems, pinned to the studio walls. One of the residents, Esme, told me that they are encouraged to create both a drawing and a poem at the beginning of each studio day. These can be throwaways: it’s not important to write well, instead it is an exercise in dual expression.

There is a very particular shade of blue that is created by shadows left when sunlight reflects off snow. Luminous and cold, tinged with white light, it catches in drifts and at the base of trees.