Med Café Culture

Lovely work Alan, lots of activity.

Those blue shades on the wall look very interesting. A nice impressionist work.

Great work mate and no reference it tells me you got a head full of information and the skill to carry it out , I love working from my head the paintings often seem better I did shadow side from my head . Oh and thank you Alan very much for your kind remarks on that painting .

Superb work Alan and the unreferenced figures show great visual memory

I love this type of scene, I love the light and shadow effects from the tree

Lovely sunny painting Alan, full of colour and interest. I wish I was sitting at one of those tables instead of looking out at the torrential rain we're having at the moment!

So colourful, beautiful dappled sunshine Alan.

Wonderful painting Alan, just love it :)

Excellent work Alan , lovely palette and great brushwork

Exceptional work Alan! Loose but with subtle details, as in the characters sat at the tables and the waiters, they are individuals. Love the really dark shadows too....one of your best Alan.

Thank you very much for those excellent comments, I must admit that I did struggle with it a little, went over the lot three times before settling on this effort.

This really couldn't have been painted by anyone else. I do like those strong tonal contrasts of yours: always good to see paintings by those who aren't afraid of darks. And so you basically made this one up out of your head? Brave man - that can go very wrong indeed, especially with thick and slow-drying oil paint.

A very fine rendition of the scene! Superbly done and the dappled light looks real!

Thank you Nandhini and Robert. <br /><br />Yes Robert, it can all go wrong, I did my usual prelim sketches to get the basic composition but changed it a few times, deciding to add the tree, which enabled me to throw some dark shadows over the figures and buildings, which is what I felt was lacking.<br /><br />This resolved my problem in so much as I wasn&#39;t getting enough contrast to indicate sunlight, but a strong mixture of Phalo Blue toned down slightly with a touch of light red hopefully sorted that out.

Excellent painting Alan, evokes happy memories of sitting outside a taverna, enjoying a cool drink and watching the world go by. Happy days!

So much to look at! Very lively with good strong colours.

I was just listening to the BBC this afternoon on how some people have a powerful capacity to see things with the mind&#39;s eye, and how some people have none whatsoever. You obviously have it in spades. To conjure up such a stunning scene with no reference materials - superlative work, Alan!