The quiet, beauty of still life painting. Abstract Realist, Paul Wonner

Garden Chairs and Lunch Table

Painter Paul Wonner, generally associated with the "Bay Area Figurative" style of painting, was the creator of beautiful, quiet works of art in a palette so rich and clear you want to reach out , grasp it, and feel the depths of the color, the textures of paint.

I keep a few of my favorites on my desktop, bringing them up to soothe my soul when needed.

the waiter

His work was regarded in the same school as the originators of the Bay Area Figurative style, which included, David Park (1911-1960) and Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993)

Dutch Still Life with Stacked Objects and Telephone (detail)

"He painted in a brushy manner similar to theirs until the late 1970s, when his style turned crisp, emphasizing bright light and sharp shadows, and he concentrated on still life themes.

Green Cloth, Orange Juice, Magnifying Glass

The Dutch Baroque still life tradition served as a historical source for Mr. Wonner, but he typically painted objects from everyday contemporary life. His mature pictures distinctively portray things as separated by almost surrealistically vacant distended spaces." sfgate.com