Hills - After Alan

Well I think you have achieved a lovely balance, there is lots of 'looseness' and some fine touches of detail in the foreground which add good strong tonal values. I didn't see Alan's original challenge, but I think you must be very happy with this outcome.

Well I have looked long and hard and no way can I see any rusty bolts in there.....I think your painting is very well done. Fortunately I wasn't on line when the challenge was issued, or it would have been a whole rusty vehicle, never mind a single bolt! This has great atmosphere and depth.

I don't think you lost the looseness. Looseness is a very dificult thing to define - to me it is more the feeling which comes over from the painting that the painter has used broad sweeps of colour and painted in a bold and courageous way and allowed the paint to mix and merge and do it's own thing. I think you have certainly done that here, especially with the sky.

I like it. I also like the forground colours very fresh.

Love this Robert, so loose and fresh, looks very spontaneous

why hi man ..a supperb example there you go ,,I knew you were brilliant , bringing the forground patch forward is a master stroke

Lovely sky - and I like the way the clouds are obscuring some of the mountain tops. The dark shrubbery in the foreground gives a touch of drama. A great painting.

I love your melancholic touch and has as been said before you've got the right balance between looseness in the background and detail in the foreground. For some reason it makes me think of Heathcliffe and Wuthering Heights.

Works for me too. Like the implied misery ;).

The colours are spot on. Good combination of hard and soft edges.

Great - as usual. Beautiful palette and I love the tension in the foreground; wonderful style.

Perfectly captured Robert. The melancholy may be a personal trait. On the other hand it may be implicit in the subject matter. Art simply confers that essential, intuitive clarity which enables us somehow to see things as they really are (as opposed to seeing them how we really are).

What a wonderful atmosperic painting!

If I can paint landscapes like this I'd be a happy man. Just love the movement in this and many of your other excellent works of art.

This is wonderful. Just what I would like to do. Many thanks for your comment on 'Imogen'. She is ALMOST what I wanted to achieve.

Hi Robert - thanks for you comments on my "bank holiday" piccy. You were one of the first to comment on my "art" when I started, (6 months ago now!) and I've followed your work since. Clearly I have a long way to go, and I appreciate your comments and guidance. Hopefully you will see some progress! I really should look into lessons. All the best.

Robert, I see you have been busy - I am not spending as much time here lately as I was either watching painting dvds, reading art books or looking at art sites and husband said if I spent more time paintings and less looking at others stuff I might get somewhere ! Looseness is more difficult to achieve than most think and like me you like atmospheric paintings and they are by no means melancholic but a reflection of our natural climate and landscape here in the british isles (yes ireland is geographically part of the hundreds that make up these lovely places.) I think paining is like life - you need the dark bits to appreciate the light when it comes along, thank you for comment on sketch of mullaghmore and yes I will do an oil on location there soon. Usually only there for day with my husband who would not have the patience for hanging around so I am going to book a weekend there solo, there is also a lovely harbour thanks to the Mountbattens who invested in the area. Happy painting and must try Alans challenge

Well the melancholic touch has worked - I like this dramatic landscape!

This really appeals to me,Robert.I love Alan Owen's paintings and this reminds me of his work.

lovely gallery Robert. I especially like this one. A real eye catcher.

Beautiful piece of work - a fabulous painting

Robert You kindly commented on my picture of Warsash Clock Tower-just across the Solent from you? I usually use Cold Pressed paper but used HP for a more considered graphic image. My preference is for looser more impressionistic pictures which I think you've nailed with this one! Brilliant recession. Phil

Excellent watercolour Robert. Perhaps a reduction in the tones as the hill recede into the distance, but that is just piccy, the painting is effective as it is. best Mick

this just reminds me of going fell walking in the lakes, you have captured the atmosphere spot on :-)

Superb - letting the paint do its thing especially in the sky - very vibrant and authentic - Alison

Yes this is nice. Loose, evocative but well drafted. Excellent stuff!

Very atmospheric watercolour

Nice work. Is it in Handmade paper?

Very striking.

For me the blue eye of the tarn and the implied sunburst make it. That darkling bird could so easily have been placed prosaically in the golden section highlight. Instead it struggles gamely in the gloom. The rest is wonderful too.

Powerful!

Still a lovely piece Robert