9.00 am: The first tutorials with my second year fine art painters, some of whom I’ve not taught before. The initial engagement was focussed upon ‘getting to know you/me’. If you begin by understanding the person, there’s a better chance that you’ll grasp their work. It was good to take up the story again with my third-year painters. The next four months will shape their careers, values, ambitions, and sense of identity like no other period in their education hitherto. My agenda for the morning was to ask, in the manner of GPs, ‘Where does it hurt?’ — To discern weaknesses, blind spots, inabilities, and insecurities with a view to developing a bespoke remedy for each encumbrance and student.

Once again, monochromatic photography was brought in bear as a tool for assessing the tonal character and integrity of the student’s work. On occasions, the results can reveal attributes of the painting that are actually countered by the chroma. Fascinating. Somewhat like an X-ray image:

This photograph turned up on my phone’s camera. But I’d not taken it, consciously. Fortuitously, it fits with the aesthetic of a student’s artwork, which I’d photographed deliberately just before the anomaly appeared:

Throughout the day (taking a dose of my own time-management medicine) I looked for ways in which my Thursday’s teaching could be compressed and rationalised, without compromise.

After lunch, I powered ahead at full-throttle through my list of second year painters. It was lovely to have to visiting students, one from northern California and the other from Brisbane, in the family (if only for this semester). Today, the objective was to lay the foundations for the semester ahead. 4.00 pm: At the close of teaching, I set out my day-by-day, hour-by-hour, responsibilities for the week ahead.

6.30 pm: To the Arts Centre for a National Theatre Live performance of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus (1969):