By The Side Of The River, Great Stour

Oh! here's another beauty, this time with a river and a bridge. The bridge is grey and contrasts with the wall, which is lighter. Was it really? or was that the effect of light on it? You chose a hard subject with the flowing plants in the water and I'm not sure that works quite as it should because it looks as if there is a rise in the bed of the river. Perhaps if the plants on the right had been more in contrast colourwise, it would have pushed the river back down a bit. Who am I to offer constructive criticism? Nobody! I love the picture. If I saw that place I would instantly recognise it. Your picture made me look longer at it than I usually do on here. Well done.

Beautiful, lovely, wonderful, all of these adjectives and many more describe this work for me! Congratulations. Very well done.

Brilliantly detailed work Nigel

Lovely photo realist work Nigel. What size is this? I particularly like the intensity and clarity of your darks, which helps with the excellent sense of contrasting lights. How did you achieve the 'black'?

Thanksvery much for all the comments Stella, David, Russell and Philip. This painting is just under A2 size, it was commissioned by the owner of The Design Gallery in Westerham, where it is on sale. If there was an influence in the image it was Millais’ Ophelia and boy was it hard to get the reeds in the water looking right! The bridge was actually quite a different shade from the wall - just the way the light fell. I used an ivory black base as the background to the plants as that was the only way to achieve the intensity of the shadows I was after. I just looked at my original photo I based it on again and that was how the river appeared - although my style tends to be hyperrealism I do often change things (hopefully to improve them!) but I must have left this as it appeared in reality. Very interesting to hear people’s feedback on this online gallery so thank you very much for all this.