What subjects did Jackson Pollock paint before he became an abstract artist?

Before Jackson Pollock became known for his abstract "drip" paintings, his work was primarily representational. During his early career, particularly from his time studying under Thomas Hart Benton through 1938, his output consisted largely of small landscapes and figurative scenes.1

These early works were heavily influenced by the compositional methods and regionalist subject matter of his teacher, as well as the expressionist vision of the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. A notable example of this period is his painting Going West (1934–35), which incorporated motifs derived from photographs of his birthplace in Cody, Wyoming. Following a mental health crisis in 1938, his style began to shift toward the semiabstract, incorporating influences from Surrealism and Jungian symbolism before he fully developed his signature abstract expressionist technique.1