8.30 am: On the doorstep; off to School:

9.00 am: Dr Forster and I began our first day of third year painting feedback tutorials. The next few days would be a relentless round of interviewing and report writing through the day, and essay and project marking through the evening. So little opportunity to think outside the tasks. We kept good time, losing only five minutes against the assessment schedule overall.

Some principles and observations derived from today’s engagements:

• You don’t need to preach through painting. The subject, the quality of your vision, and the manner of the representation is its own justification.
• You don’t need another subject but a different approach to the same subject.
• ‘Power and tenderness; loudness and silence’, in tension. Begin with chaos and move to order; begin with something and move to nothing.

Storm Brendan hit the West-Wales coast after lunch. The wind rose gradually and to a pitch, beating hail against the windows:

By 4.00 pm, the worst had passed. We drove down to the Old College for our last assessment of the day.

6.30 pm: Practise session. 7.30 pm: I returned to the Abstraction exhibition project marking for the remainder of the evening.