A view from Fort Victoria Country Park

I like the picture Robert, A good composition.

Really like the composition, I definitely wouldn't paint over it - lessons learnt on every painting I find.

I also luke this painting Robert, no need to paint over it.

I like the composition too. Makes you feel as if you’re peering out through the undergrowth

Not your best one Robert but still far to good to paint over.

The jury is seated… Judge Bickley is on the bench… The trees are rather good I must say, but I reckon the figure and dog are way too large, unless those trees are a gorse bush! I’d lose the yachts and almost blend the sky into the sea, just a faint horizon line visible. Drop in a couple of hazy yacht sails in the distance. The sea is too blue I think, so a duller sky and sea colour altogether would help. There’s too much going on for my liking, that would be a possibility and also get rid of the foreground flowers… Atmosphere is the challenge, how best to create it and avoid anything verging on a ‘pretty’ picture!

Meant to add… this is what I would probably do, but it’s a decent enough image as it stands…

I rather like this, especially the trees/foliage.

Reminds me of the times I have been there Robert. Artist always down what they do, and I am no different. I think it works, and it certainly reminds me of Victoria Park. Thanks for the memories.

Alan - that was all very useful, your Honour, and I agree with you; proportions out, too much going on, and Our Hero sitting too close to the board and not taking enough steps backwards - that was my own judgement; it coincides so much with yours that we've got to be right! Thanks to all for your comments. I have been having trouble with acrylic for some time, yielding to the can-add-detail-so-will syndrome.

Looking a bit different now - in so much pain I've had to leave it for a bit, but I've gone out there with the strimmer, and frightened away the old lady and her dog... Snag is, I need a new focal point; can't quite work out where to put it or what it should be..

I would like to see more warmth in the trees, particularly as they are in the foreground. The pale areas in the trees are a little too white and therefore too blue for the foreground. A yellow or orange glaze would fix this.

Thank you, Linda- they are holm oaks, but I agree - they could do with some warmth; planted often in Victorian parks and cemeteries (and with a nasty habit of suddenly splitting and falling, as one massive specimen here did) they are rather cold and forbidding trees; but yes, reaching for a bit of orange or burnt sienna, thanks!