Buriton Church

I understand what you are getting at in this painting, Philip. I am a great fan of white paper and not saying too much in a painting, leaving the viewer to fill in the missing parts themselves. However, and this is only a personal opinion and could be totally wrong, I do rather feel that there is a bit too much missing. I have studied the painting carefully and tried to work out what is worrying me about it and I think it is the lack of depth on the tower of the church. There is a lot of strength on the right hand side of the painting, but this drops away in the middle and left hand side, which is a bit unbalanced. I am not advocating filling in everything with colour - heaven forbid as I don't really like that style of painting - but I just feel it needs a bit more. Do you have any influences in your paintings style as your paintings do have a nod towards Judi Whitton's work. I am a great fan of Judi's and really like her style and work. If you haven't discovered her, look her up as I think you will like her paintings. I do totally understand your reluctance to paint everything as it is and within an inch of it's life and it is a fine balancing act to know how much to put in and what to leave out (I have quite a few on my gallery over which I fretted horribly for exactly this reason). However, having said all that - your painting immediately caught my eye because of it's uniqueness and the bravery of it's execution - so keep up the good work.

Thank you Thea. I think you are spot on and your feedback is exactly what I use this site for. It was only once I'd taken the photo of the work, that I realised that there was too much left unpainted, and what was painted lacked mid tones with dark darks and light lights much in evidence. Rather than take this down and replace it I've added some more areas of more intense colour and have re posted it so you may compare and contrast. I've still tried to maintain a light touch a la Whitton, as you suggest, but have now left more clues.