GEORGE TAPLEY (home) : Abstraction

Abstraction #2
oil/canvas
22" x 28"
$400.00

This was painted as an homage to my friend Terry St John, a Bay Area painter whom I knew in the 1960s in Monroe, LA. Since we both had studied art in the Bay Area we shared common interests and influences: painterliness, spontaneity, expressiveness, plein air painting.

We also admired the art of the great Bay Area figurative painters who were our teachers: Diebenkorn, Bischoff, and Park. While both of us painted figures and landscapes throughout our careers, we also both made abstract paintings ( though you can’t always tell if a painting is figurative or abstract).

My painting Abstraction # 2 is based on a sketch for a landscape where I looked down a road towed a mountain. Space is compressed and colors and shapes are given changed emphasis from their original appearance.

Trail by the Back Bay
oil/canvas
12" x 15"
$400.00

Frame in a light colored wood.

Abstraction #1
oil/canvas
22" x 28"
$400.00

Framed in a black colored wood.

The Swimmer
oil/canvas
25" x 28"
$400.00

Beautifully framed and matted in white, covered with glass.

Abstract Landscape #4
oil/canvas
12" x 15"
$400.00

Path toward the sea between two hills, Costa Mesa.

Framed in a light colored wood.

Dessert Plants
oil/canvas
18" x 24"
$400.00

Abstract #2 - The Green Diamond
oil/canvas
36" x 30"
$600.00

The Green Diamond was the most challenging with its smaller shapes and more complex blending of colors. The aim here was to produce a glowing effect with painterly areas held in place by dark bands of varied colors. The reproduction fails to show balance achieved by the upward, left to right movement of diagonal bands.

Framed in black colored wood.

Sunset OC
oil/canvas
18" x 24"
$400.00

Abstract #3
oil/canvas
36" x 30"
$600.00

Exists as Free Geometry. Composed of what appear to be cages, or ladders, or stairs, they suggest the influence of Cubism, although no reference was intended. Mostly they were an adventure in making paintings with an ambiguous sense of depth. Warm and cool colors are combined to into patterns and adjusted to create balance. Movement is suggested by diagonals; transparency indicated by changes in value; in other words these are exercises in basic design.

Framed in black colored wood.

For Terry
oil/canvas
26" x 28"
$400.00

Odalisque
oil/canvas
13" x 13"
$400.00

Frame in a light colored wood.

Abstract Landscape #3
oil/canvas
16" x 12" (turn picture to 12 x 16)
$400.00

Abstract #1 - The Pink Room
oil/canvas
36" x 30"
$600.00

The Pink Room suggests an enclosed space terminated by the contrast of a dark blue shape with light pink shape. This contrast near the center of the composition starts a visual game of compare and contrast: the yellow triangle placed against the mid value orange shape is comparable in its shape to the dark blue triangle at the top; the upward direction of the pink shape contrasts the downward direction of the "ladder" at the lower right. The goal here is to attain harmony through careful adjustment of the elements of design.

Framed in black colored wood.