8.45 am: Abstraction set up. The morning’s lecture dealt with Rothko and Newman in the context of their beliefs about the transcendental. I’ve passed through this discussion with a great many students over the years. For some, like Stephen Chilton, the lecture was a turning point towards a deeper apprehension of his own modus operandi. This had nothing to do with the quality of the lecture, and everything to do to with his exposure to Rothko’s work. (In the final analysis, it’s the painting that persuades.) Stephen was receptive; he and Rothko had met at exactly the right right time.

My throat was clogging – the residual impact of a cold that has dogged quite a number of us since Freshers’ Week. My daily dose:

Remaining on the medical prevention front, the School has a condom dispenser now. Better safe than sorry:

10.00 am: I made a mug of tea, gathered my thoughts, and looked over my notes in readiness for another Thursday on the studio floor, teaching the third year painters. ‘Surprise me!’ Today, I applied my box of Oblique Strategies in the context of the undergraduate tutorials. A first, for me:

Students who are engaged in joint honours or multi-medial degrees need to be exemplary at managing their activities. They have to keep all the various elements in check all the time. Otherwise one or other will dominate over the rest … which will get left behind. 1.00 pm: Abstraction. On, then, to Duchamp, Dada, and the rise of Pop Art (Modernism’s internal counter-reaction to abstraction). This was the occasion for introducing the class to Jimi Hendrix’s rendering of the American National Anthem in relation to Jasper John’s Flag series of paintings.

2.30 pm: Following a hurried lunch, I returned to the shop floor for an afternoon of engaging and fairly deep discussions about the students’ work. All in all, it had been a productive and encouraging day on both sides. At this time of the year, the sunsets are always a legitimate distraction for the students and staff:

5.30 pm: Exit.

7.30 pm: The Thursday evening round-up, tidy-up, and upload of the week’s teaching. I was up-to-date with admin for the first time since the beginning of the academic year.

Principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• T: ‘In what direction is the work moving? Once you’ve discerned the answer, you’ll know with some surety where the work isn’t moving and, therefore, what it’s not about.
• The trick is to steer clear of your zone of incompetence. Don’t try and major in what you may never be able to do well.
• Turn a disadvantage into an advantage.
• If you follow the rules for long enough, they’ll become a part of you.
• T: ‘Before the invention of photography, how did folk remember the faces of loved ones who’d died? Did they have a capacity to capture and hold the mental image more surely and for longer than we – who rely upon photographs to refresh our recollection – can?’
• T: ‘This is precision: the colour that you mix is the colour that you want.’