6.15 am. Before breakfast, I put the finishing touches to the student reference that I’d begun last night. 8.00 am. The sun clipped the hilltops:

8.30 am. There was an unusual quietness (not silence) on Trinity Road, as I approached the School. The absence of sound can make itself forcibly present just as surely as a loud noise. On arrival, I prepared the scripts and technology to deliver the day’s two lectures, and made ready to deliver second year painting tutorials around them. In one of the studios: a homage to Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015):

Some principles and observations derived from today’s encounters:

• Once the mind has understood, the eye will see, and the hand will follow.
• Remember how much you forget. Perhaps it would be wise to record your tutorials.
• Absence makes the art grow feebly. Therefore, make every effort to attend your tutorials.
• That you’ve never done something doesn’t necessarily mean that you cannot do it.
• Learn to abandon works that are heading in the wrong direction.
• A painting should be intrinsically interesting: in the manner of its construction and inventive engagement with the medium. Interesting subject matter alone will not carry it.
• Visual memory is like a muscle — it needs to be exercised to develop.
• It may take one work only to manifest a turning point. And this can come at any time to those who have worked hard and consistently.
• We may not understand our work because it is in advance of our understanding, waiting for us to catch up.

11.10 am. The British Landscape lecture, on ‘Theology and Geology’, was followed by further tutorials. A number of students are beginning, now, to make a breakthrough. All of them are those who work consistently and never miss a tutorial. These things are not incidental.

1.40 pm. In one of the studios: the work of Robert Smithson (1938-73) came to mind:

2.10 pm. Art in Wales, and a lecture on ‘Art and National Revival’, was followed by further tutorials until 4.10 pm. The final hour was set aside for module admin.

5.20 pm. Home, and an evening off to celebrate a family event.