7.00 am: Awake. Warmer. The radiators were no longer struggling for dominance. After the thaw, a sense of normality has returned. There’ve been some ‘storms’ over the past six months that have changed my ‘landscape’ irrevocably, such that I could not return to the ‘before time’ without acquiring amnesia. There was a storm during the year in which I sat my 11-Plus Exam. The sky over Abertillery went darker than I’d ever experienced before or subsequently anywhere. The lesson stopped abruptly. This was an event to be remembered. We pressed our faces against the classroom window in a spirit of wonder and fear. The sky in the furthest background reddened. If someone had told us that this was the end of the world, we’d have believed them. The torrent broke as I walked home at lunchtime. (I lived next door to the school.) When I got into the house, I hid under my father’s coat and curled up in the armchair until Mam came in from work. The thunder and lightening were fearful; my world was being shaken apart, violently. The experience prepared me for far worse storms to come:

Adumbration (1990) acrylic on board, 17.9 × 17.9 cm

8.30 am: Off to the Old College for a morning of MA tutorials. The divided man:

I’d be running from pillar to post for the remainder of the day. Again, there were a number of significant realisations made during the course of teaching. The best ideas and solutions seem always to arise in the context of conversation. Meg’s palette:

12.00 pm: Off to the station to buy a rail ticket. 12.30 pm: A further tutorial followed by MA inquirer’s meeting. 1.30 pm: I ate lunch over admin. This isn’t to be recommended. But the principle of ‘needs must’ prevailed today. 2.00 pm: A Skype tutorial. 2.30 pm: A collaboration meeting with the head of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and one of our PhD Fine Arts students. This has the making of a productive working relationship. 3.30 pm: I held two postponed third year painting tutorials before heading home in the rain.

4.45 pm: Catch up, and the last of the packing. 6.45 pm: Off to the Vicarage and to my other life: Holy Trinity Church committee:

Some principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• Things that we make, for which we may have an initial aversion, can in time become objects of our affection. (The reverse is also true.)
• T: ‘If I tell you which option to choose, then I’ll defraud you of your right to make a mistake.’
• The work may shout at us for a very long time before we are ready to pay attention.
• T: ‘What is the nature of the struggle?’
• We may struggle to know what to do, while at the same time knowing how to do it. (Understanding is not always linear.)
• Turn your instincts into cognisance. This is of the essence of learning.
• T: ‘Look at Lowry’s seascapes‘.
• Style = a consistent manner of working over time.
• In painting, the solution must be found. For it cannot, first, be known.
• Discern the principles behind the successful work and, then, adapt them to subsequent works.
• When we stop being precious about a work, things start to happen. So, let go of your high expectations and let it be.
• It’s no longer an accident when you turn it to good effect.