Turnberry Castle and Lighthouse

Lovely work Bill, lovely sea and beach with the rocks, really good work on the lighthouse as well

Hi Bill, love the sky background and mid ground, althought the Ireland is central, the main subject of the lighthouse is offset. My only critic is the forground. Working on the third rule if you crop the picture so that the horizon is a third of the way up. The forground rocks which keep pulling my eyes away are taken off, leaving the line of small pebbles or seaweed to lead your eyes in from the right, across to the lighthouse, then out to sea. The picture becomes far more balanced. See what you think Bill. Regards Pete.

Ros & Pete - thanks very much for your comments, very much appreciated. Pete, you're absolutely right now I look at it again. Interestingly, my wife said almost exactly the same thing yesterday, after I finished it -she didn't like the foreground. I'm a bit annoyed, since looking back at development sketches etc, what I wanted was a sweep from the bottom right, drawing the eye to the middle left, and then back up to the main subject - a sort of < shape. I think that I got too absorbed in how I might portray the light on the beach, & quite literally forgot the "big picture". My first thought was that I could tone down the contrast between the foreground rocks & the beach on the right, so it didn't draw the eye so much, but that's no good because there isn't enough dark at the bottom left. I'll have to have another go, because I wanted it to be a farewell present for a neighbour who plays golf at Turnberry. Serves me right for taking months over it!

Interesting to read the comments on this one, I initially thought the picture was ok but Peter's suggestion seems to improve things, perhaps you should try a mount on it, covering the foreground rocks, might save you re painting!

Stephen - thanks for the advice & encouragement, much appreciated