Transitional Paintings

The title of this collection of paintings is named transitional because they represent a defnite movement from realistic elements to abstract painting. There have been periods when I only painted abstract geometric compositions, sometimes purely abstract. I recently explored a very traditional form of painting fgures, landscapes, seascapes and still-life.T In considering a new series of paintings, I researched the Bay Area fgure painters. I went to art school in thr Bay Area and along with enjoying the rediscovery of Theibaud and Diebenkorn and Oliveira, I came across new painters I had not appreciated before. One of them especially moved me, Sandy Ostrau. I began focusing on researching and viewing as many paintings as I could fnd. For some reason these paintings immediately spoke to me and taught me something I had been looking for. The dilemma of abstraction vs realistic details in painting. At once I was freed from the tyranny of the details of a fgure or a land/seascape. The model was no longer a specifc person with features that made them more or less beautiful. But rather a fgure to be represented in any manner that the painting needed. Now, when I look at a landscape, or a fgure, I see entirely different sets of information. It is simply about making a painting, of texture, color, shapes, lines etc.and their relationship to each other. A tree isn't a specifc tree, it's a painted object. A fgure isn't a specifc recognizable person, but an object in a painting. I am free to simply enjoy the process of painting itself, with the objects entirely subjugated. note:Each section contains examples of Realistic and Transitional Abstract Paintings