Winter Lake

This is a lovely picture Chris. The snow is the star element of it. Love the foreground. With the trees I would try to achieve effect that the branches go thinner as they go up. The distant houses perspective does need a bit of correction.

Your colour scheme is very effective - it has a glow that hits the eye. I think with trees you just have to get in a particular groove - sometimes they work, sometimes not. On the whole, these do, but Olga makes useful points: let go - twist the brush as you follow the form up from the roots, aiming always to get freedom into your stroke. Japanese and Chinese painters do these things especially well - but then, so do you: just feel you will do even better in time.