Abstract Still Life

Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
Size: 4ft x 4ft
Creation Date: 2024
Collection: Playful Abstraction

Abstract Still Life reimagines a classical genre through the lens of geometry, texture, and irreverence. This 48 x 48 inch mixed media painting, part of the Playful Abstraction, distills domestic forms — cups, fruits, vessels — into playful, flattened fragments that hover somewhere between cartoon and symbol.

The background pulses with a blush-toned grid overlaid by floating forms: a lemon-yellow arc, a turquoise half-circle, a dusty mauve square. None of the “objects” are literal, yet their relationships — weight, balance, distance — evoke the quiet tension of a table arrangement. Color becomes form. Form becomes attitude.

I painted Abstract Still Life while thinking about routine — the familiar objects that inhabit our everyday, and how abstraction might renew our perception of them. By removing detail and embracing shape, I allowed humor and mystery to enter a format often viewed as static or academic.

The influence of Tom Wesselmann is clear, particularly in the crisp outlines and sensual minimalism. But where Wesselmann leaned into pop consumerism, I’m more interested in presence — in how suggestion can replace representation and still feel intimate.

This painting is about the spaces between things. It asks us to consider how meaning is constructed through placement, pause, and the echo of what’s been abstracted.