I wake up at 8am as my girlfriend is getting ready for work.  I’m not working today – I work part time in an architect’s office – which means I’m automatically in a good mood. I make tea and toast while my girlfriend dries her hair, and I wait for our archaic lap top to grumpily boot up. It seems very much to have its own personality – a deeply unpleasant one – and refuses to do anything without a great deal of patience and gentle coaxing.

I’d very much like to be in my studio today, working on some new paintings, but like most artists, I’ve found since leaving art school that most of my time is spent on administration or promotion. I’m desperately trying to finish a funding application for an arts event I’m organising later in the year. The application is already slightly longer than my MA thesis, and has the same ability to invoke dread whenever I think about it. I want to complete the budget section today, before I have a meeting at 2 with a curator who wants to see some of my work. She’s hoping to show several paintings in the entrance foyer of a city company, which could lead to other things. At least gets it out of my studio for a few months (storage is a problem for every painter I know).

At 4 I’m meeting someone from the Jerwood Foundation – a great organisation within the arts – to try and get them to support the event I’m planning. This needs to go well. I’m already debating how to dress. I decide I a suit would be over the top. After that I’ll get to my studio for a few hours.

But first – funding; my laptop is finally awake, and I begin.