The process of creating a work of art or rather the motivation for creating one comes from the world as we know it and moves by necessity towards a vision of the world that the artist strives to re-create.  The process of creation allows for no other as it is impossible for the hand of the artist no matter the talent to re-create "reality".  So in that sense every painting is an abstraction of the real world by the process of attempting to paint it.  A camera can produce even more precise images than any artist.  These images may then be manipulated, distorted, and produced in cookie cutter manner for as long as there is a market for the image.  But I am not sure if this is art.  A found object, such as a piece of driftwood may provoke an esthetic response, but it however manipulated, is the result of the actions of the universe following universal laws.  And in that same manner "paintings" created by elephants or chimps in the zoo may have similar appeal to the eye yet lack the most basic element of all art, deliberation.    In my opinion, a painting is an articulation of the vision of the artist and is his statement of not only how things look to him but how they feel, (or operate) and convey his sense of what the world should be.   

See more of this artist's work   www.jcnowlin.com