I’ve never been able to do just one thing

WFH: DAY 21. 8.00 am: An earlier start. Deadlines pressed down upon me. I reviewed the day’s roster of third-year painting tutorials (the day’s main meal) and my the REF PowerPoint notes, which I’d developed yesterday in between PhD fine art tutorials and during the evening. 9.00 am: A beginning. A number of the students are working in ‘garret’ conditions: painting under poor light in the corner of a bedroom. Understandably, the scale of their work is far smaller than it would be under the School’s studio conditions. Needs must. 11.00 am: Cup of tea #3, and an hour in which to further PowerPoint 2.

12.00 pm: Tutorials resumed. At this point in the semester, I’m eager to confirm each student’s theme. There’s no more time for prevarication. A commitment must be made. They need to begin making what could be the first of the exhibited works.

1.30 pm: After lunch, I visited the School to retrieve a parcel and to check things in my office. The clock had stopped at the time that I would otherwise have entered in the mornings. How long ago, I don’t know. No one was on the ground floor at the front of the building. As I closed the door of my office to leave, I recalled fond memories of Professor Cruise (now retired), who was my next-door neighbour.

2.00 pm: I was introduced to the concept of ‘mood-boarding’. (I know I’m getting old, but I suspect that my children would be just as bemused.) It involves bringing together in one place images that reflect either your current mood or a mood which you wish to express through your work. The emotional counterpart of the spider-diagram. Well I never. 5.00 pm: All done. Each had been given a program of work that I expected to be realised by the next tutorial.

Some observations and principles derived from today’s engagements:

• T: ‘You need now in coming to the exhibition work to exercise a severe editorialism. It is not enough that a painting is ‘good’. It needs to excel. Exhibit only the best.
• T: ‘You may not be your best counsellor, and sometimes we’re so immersed in our work that we cannot make secure judgements. So seek the advice of those who know you and whose work you respect.
• T: ‘Be generous towards your work.’ Don’t condemn its weaknesses too soon; encourage the paintings towards betterment. Be generous to yourself too.’
• Paint what needs to be in the work not what’s there in reality, necessarily.
• T: ‘You’re an artist who’s still growing. Therefore expect the paintings in the series you’re producing to evolve. What you should be looking for is consistency of quality, rather more than uniformity of type, method, and style.’
• T: ‘Learn the value of one minute.’

7.30 pm: I undertook register updates and a general tidy-up in readiness for tomorrow’s Art/Sound lectures, before returning to the REF PowerPoint 2 ‘Overview’. (A tough nut to crack.)