Call and Response - Representation and Abstraction

Every representational painter has an opinion on abstractions. Having tried one in the past I can attest to the fact that they are not easy and they are not "my child can do that" when they hold a visual interest.  My attraction to abstraction is the mechanics of pushing paint around for the sake of the paint, not for the sake of the image. This concept is intriguing to me.

Keeping with the call of color, a still life is set up, followed by a warm up preliminary painting (Top). This preliminary painting is done quickly, without concern for composition or accurate drawing or lines. It's purpose it to loosen the hand and train the eye without putting the mind in between.
I follow the Preliminary with a representational painting (Middle) with great attention to scale, composition, forms and drawing.
The third part of this exploration is the abstraction (Bottom) using the same colors that called me in the first place but by trying to leave everything else behind, I am hoping to allow for an organic response to the paint.

I like abstraction because it's so open ended and I don't like abstraction because it's so open ended. And so it goes but where it goes nobody knows, least of all myself.