1. Wall-mounted easel. Not a thing of beauty, I’ll admit, but utterly indispensable. I rebuilt it from what was originally a freestanding easel and mounted it to the wall so that I can sit comfortably and work on paintings at close range. I’m currently tinkering with it to accommodate larger panels, but that particular engineering project will have to wait for now.

2. My trusty iPad Pro. The high-definition screen means I can zoom into fine details while painting. It’s a few years old now but still does the job perfectly. I have it mounted on a swan-neck bracket clamped to my studio trolley, which means I can adjust it to always be at my eye level.

3. Glass palette on adjustable stand. This one is really a combination of elements. The palette itself is a piece of glass with a sheet of gray paper laid behind it. That gray is a close match for my wall color and, crucially, for the mid-tone value of the primer I use on all my panels. The result is that every value I mix reads consistently, without having to mentally adjust constantly.

4. Palette knife. This is probably a very flexible painting knife rather than a palette knife, but the number has long since worn off so I couldn’t tell you the model. I’m down to two of them now, and I dread the day I break the last one. The flex is exactly right for me: it picks up every last scrap of paint cleanly from the glass, which makes both pre-mixing at the start of a session and tidying up at the end a great deal quicker.

5. Håg Capisco Chair. I’ve had this chair for about 15 years, and it’s been an absolute godsend. The saddle-shaped seat means you sit with a natural spinal alignment and takes pressure off the joints in a way that conventional chairs simply don’t. It’s endlessly adjustable, and you can sit facing either way. It’s also robust enough that I expect it to last many more years. I would not be without it.  —

See more from the artist:  maryjaneansell.co.uk