Born in the Orchard

Ashley’s relationship with creativity started early, and it started outdoors. Atop the orchard ladders of her two grandfathers’ where the world takes on a whole new perspective. Here, surrounded by nature’s raw abundance, she learned how colour, flavour and memory blend into something worth keeping.

Her family’s kitchens taught her that same lesson in a different voice: that ordinary ingredients, handled with care and intention, become a form of art.

Then came a long pause. Following a childhood moment that shook her confidence, the paintbrushes were put down for thirty years. Creative instinct didn’t vanish; it just shifted direction, spending those years powering branding, design and strategy in service of other people’s visions.

The Return

When painting finally returned, it came back in the stillness of a very different season of life. And when the brush touched canvas again, miles and an ocean away, it wasn’t abstract shapes that poured out- it was grandfathers’ orchards, vibrant harvests and cosy kitchen meals. The paintbrush picked up old threads as if no time had passed at all.

That instinct: food as memory, memory as art became the core foundation of Culinary Artz. (And yes, with a Z, because this isn’t art with food; it’s the fine art of food).

Built to Last

Between the orchard memory and the easel, there was another pivotal chapter: years spent creating, producing and selling skincare products from scratch.

Formulating soap requires a strict discipline. With batch consistency, compliance and supply chains, there are many moving parts and zero room for error. That hands-on experience taught Ashley what it truly takes to run a dependable physical product business.

While Culinary Artz is focused on fine-art prints and stationery, it is built on both halves of her story: an artist’s eye for beauty and a founder’s commitment to reliability.

Studio to Stationery

Every card, fine art print and paper treasure born under the Culinary Artz name starts as an original painting in a studio in Golders Green, London.

Whimsical on the surface. Considered underneath. Each piece is unified by a signature polka-dot background that gives every piece room to breathe. It’s still, in a quiet and joyful way, that very same view from the orchard ladder.

One of the joys of building a botanical skincare brand was its cohesive visual identity. Before one craft market, caught without marketing materials, Ashley picked up a brush in the middle of the night and painted the bear in the bathtub.