High above Elterwater

As per usual, I think both your today's postings are great. I love the way in this one we are regarding the landscape from a great height and see the river meandering through the image. The blue hill ? Just that dark cloud going over it has caused the summit to darken - I think it actually works very well.

Wonderful feeling of sweeping valleys and hills. I think the painting is very nicely balanced, with the dark blue hill in the background on the right and the dark hill in the foreground left giving a good feeling of cohesion within the vastness of the scene. Very good variety in tones and shades of greys and greens. Works a treat I would say.

Personally I like the hill on the right and feel it balances the darker aspects on the left I grew up in the Lakes and I like the way you have shown the more real rather than chocolate box colours of the fells

I love this as well, great vista of the hills and mountains in this part of the Lake District

I agree with Nicola, the balance is lovely and as soon as I saw the colours in this I thought Wow.

Super feeling of distance in this one Jem, I think because the hill in question is blue it still recedes into the distance even though it is a little strong in tone. Interesting to hear that the professionals also doubts about their work?

Interesting, this; when a painter has reached the level you're at, their work makes a statement - with which you can either agree or disagree (ie, like it or not like it) but criticism is often redundant. For instance, if that's how you saw the hill - well, that's how you saw it and should represent it. The observer has no idea of your intentions and therefore can't readily say if the colour is too strong - although it would probably be obvious if it were too weak; but then in that case you'd almost certainly have adjusted the tones elsewhere... With an amateur painting, you can often see what's 'right' or 'wrong'; their inexperience shows. But you've gone beyond that now - this, I suspect, is why we often get the 'very nice!' type of comment: beyond saying you like it or don't like it, in many cases there's not much else to be said! Oh by the way - I like it.

My eye has wandered (and wondered) through this, from side to side, top to bottom, zig-zagging inward and onward... And I can find no fault. Your dark hill could easily be the result of a fleeting cloud shadow.

Like you, I always see the errors or unsatisfactory bits of my paintings. But it is rare for others to see them. Are we to critical of our own? Answer, I think, is yes. To me your painting is beautiful. Perhaps the blue hill is a little too dark as the further away the hill is, the paler it gets

I think the blue hill is brilliant as that catches the eye and is what your eye is attracted to (path through the painting).