There is more than one way to create an abstract painting. One way is to take an everyday object and remove the distinguishing features to use the composition, lines and colors to create an abstract painting. You can use as many steps as you need to get to the end. Back in school one project required ten steps using a chair as a beginning.
For this example, I am using a painting of a Teapot by Paula Zima as my start. She has a strong composition, colors and lines in her painting. By attacking one color at a time, I took her image and converted it to an abstract painting in six steps.