Sunrise, sunset, River Ems impresssion

Wow....It is stunning. May I ask you a question? What is glazing? Does glazing mean the same thing in oil or watercolour? Thank you.

Eddy, many thanks. Glazing in oil means painting transparent colour over dried paint, in order to unify it or enrich it; it requires a richer oil mix than one's used in the base layers of paint, or it's likely to crack. The process is much the same in acrylic or watercolour - the problem with it is that oil takes longer to dry. But this can be exaggerated - it doesn't take that long for oil to become surface dry - people seem to think it takes weeks, but it just doesn't; two or three days at most. In watercolour, a similar sort of result can be achieved by washing over the dried colour with clean water, then adding more colour; and some don't bother with the wash-over with clean water, but just go straight in - I've found the results to be less successful if done that way. In oil or acrylic (which lends itself perfectly to a glazing technique) endless coats can be applied if you want to; obviously care needs to be taken .... too many glazes in watercolour do tend to kill the transparency. This is less of a problem in oil or acrylic, because one's using opaque paint to start with.

Robert, many thanks for your clear explanation in response to my question. It always seems to be a struggle for the painter to pack a lot of colour into a work without it becoming too muddy (in the case of watercolour) or too muddled and lifeless (in the case of oils). You have done such a terrific job in this painting of incorporating loads of colour and, in doing so, increasing the substance and depth of the object.

It is probably due to my ageing eyes but I need to see these paintings on full magnification lately to fully appreciate them, the old wooden fence through the foliage ,and the wonderfull colours , great work.

A wonderful "impressionist" work. The undergrowth is so real - a real beauty.

Many thanks. William, my eyes are ageing too - good luck to you if looking at this in full magnification: in the flesh, it works if you regard it from a distance - becomes almost meaningless close up; I found the magnification presented a similar problem; I've photographed this 4 times now, and it looks different in each version. Great fun to do, though - a process of building up - not at all a clean cut painting: I confidently expect someone to hate it!

I really like this work Alan it conveys such vibrancy and even though it is impressionistic it has so much realism achieved in it. Excellent work!

So complicated but so well depicted! I love the flicks of different colours. It is a very impressionist style that is working so well.

Robert...This glows and sparkles with light and colour, so much movement in it too.Llovely.

There is so much to see in this, full of colour and movement, a super piece of work.

Subscribe to all the above. I can imagine that it looks even better in natura. It must have been very difficult to paint - I can imagine you stepping back every few minutes to check the effect. A lot of work but it has really paid off.

Good textures and colours, I like the lit path which seems to reflect on the right tree trunk.

Superb techniques Robert