Experimenting with the Abstract

Lately I've taken a tentative side trip from my usual realism to abstraction. The idea of doing a series of cityscapes has been percolating through the corridors of my mind, but until a few days ago the idea was little more than a collection of random thoughts, and I put them aside in favor of portraits and figures. But sometimes it takes not thinking about it to advance an idea, and so it has been with this one.

The first painting on the right was inspired by an image I saw someplace or other, either online or in an art collectors' publication. Regardless, the picture I saw (considerably different from this one) led me to cityscapes and abstraction. The first is 12x12 on a hardboard panel.

Here are three more experiments in abstract representation, each a cityscape. By the way, the images here are not based on any particular city or any particular location. Instead, they're based on previous cities where I've either lived for a time, or visited. These three paintings vary in size. The first is 20x16 on panel, the next is 8x6 and the last is another 20x16. All are painted on hardboard panels. I've no idea if this series is an aberration or a new direction. Time will tell, as with most of these things. These paintings were certainly enjoyable to make and perhaps readers of this blog (if any) would care to comment?