"As you grow older, it dawns on you that you are yourself-- that your job is to not force yourself into a style but to do what you want. I saw that if I would accept subjects, I could paint with more absorption, with a certain enthusiasm for the subject which would allow some of the aesthetic qualities such as color and composition to evolve more naturally. With subjects, the difference is that I feel a natural development of the painting rather than a formal, self-conscious one."
David Park (David Park was an American painter and a pioneer of the Bay Area Figurative Movement in painting during the 1950s)
As I painted this avocado with a spoon I contemplated this quote which came from the class that I took from Duane Keiser, the well known "painting a day" artist.
I grew older and a bit more skilled and wiser with every painting that I have done since taking this class. And a bit of other "growing older" was that to paint this in the "premier coup" or "alla prima" method, not from any photographic reference but from life in the moment, I had to paint fast. The avocado turned brown, withered, old and black by the time I had finished the background so I had to plan carefully and work with quick intention.
