Lake scene by SUSAN Tomlinson

If I may make so bold: trouble is, it's a London plane, almost certainly, and thus a bit out of place on a lakeside - it just doesn't sit there quite comfortably. It's always important to match the botany to the surroundings... an alder, or birches, or willow, for example, would have worked well here. This is a very straight, typical city tree, such as you'll see cracking the pavement; it just wouldn't survive in this environment. There's a lot to be said for painting from nature: very easy to get into trouble when you transplant species. The other thing I'd say is, loosen up a bit - wet that sky and flood in colour, french ultramarine plus light red or burnt sienna, add a bit of raw sienna, or put the raw sienna down first and then work into it with & french ultra and light red mix, then paint your tree(s) boldly over the top when the basecoats have dried. This is a promising painting, but I have the feeling that you've rather over-carefully pieced it together, from several different ideas. Being careful with watercolour can be the kiss of death.

Hi Robert, thanks for taking the time to comment on the painting, if I could paint as well as you, i would be very pleased - I found your gallery and had a look - very good paintings. It was an experiment with the tree, but I had the sketch, had seen a similar painting, and just went along with the idea - didn't actually think about the species - I will next time! The sky, normally I do wet the paper before starting the sky, but for some reason, I didn't on this occasion. I started with a blue wash, and then thought - I haven't wet the paper - by then I was nearly down the page. I did use french ultramarine and I think rose madder, may have been light red, plus a touch of raw sienna, from what I remember. Skies are normally my bit of expertise, I have done some good ones in the past, while the rest of the painting may have been rubbish! Anyway thanks for looking.

I was unkind about your sky: I'm a moody old thing, and don't always stop when I should. Your painting certainly isn't rubbish, by the way. To make a serious point though, I think that it's important to have an idea about the species of tree and where they'd be likely to flourish: that doesn't mean you have to paint a botanical specimen, but some things belong in certain places and others don't. Eg, a palm tree in Rotherham, to take an extreme example. And the more you know about trees, the more interesting they are - so a whole new field of study awaits you!