8.00 am. An administrative tidy-up before venturing outward — bound for the Old College — to conduct my last session of second-year painting tutorials for the academic year:

When is not a painting, a painting?:

Some principles and observations:

• Do only that which is either sufficient or necessary. All else is elaboration and surplus.
• Reckon on it: one day, your best and worst works will likewise turn to dust.
• Reckon on it: one day, you and your work will likewise be forgotten.
• We aren’t bound to continue along the path that we set out upon. After all, where we wanted to go may not be where we should be heading.
• The most fearful words that you will ever hear at an assessment are inaudible; they are spoken by that inner voice, which conjectures: ‘I have let myself down!’

A morning of prepping students for their ‘feedback tutorial’. I’m uncomfortable with the term. It fosters an attitude of receptive listening only, rather than active participation also. In short, ‘feedback’ = being fed, in the student’s mind. I’d rather they be taught to feed themselves too. Ideally, students should be fully engaged in the process of assessment: able to auto-critique, and competent to critique the critique that tutors address to the work.

1.30 pm. Back at the ranch, I had a hurried lunch, checked on the corporate preparations of the exhibition, and prepared for, what turned out to be, a very productive PhD Fine Art tutorial at 2.00 pm. 3.15 pm. An MA Fine Art consultation. 4.00 pm. A further tour of the studios. (Ahhh! The overpowering aroma of fresh emulsion paint.) 4.15 pm. A sound-file processing tutorial with one of the BA fine artists:

6.20 pm. Following dinner, I put in two hours of assessment related admin and report writing before shutting shop to watch the election night TV broadcasts … for a very long time. Fetch hither the Cadbury’s chocolate, ice-cold milk, Pom-Bear, and occasional slices of toast: