Gore Cliff, Blackgang, Isle of Wight

No sign of a fight that I can see. Just looks like a beautifully textured and coloured landscape. Great strength to the rocks and, as always, really well defined shrubs and trees. A really attractive painting.

It is lovely Robert, now leave it alone, don't mess with it, it looks perfectly good as it is!

Hello Robert, what was the fight about? In fact I was in Portsmouth at the weekend and looked over to the Isle of Wight and did think I saw some paintbrushes and steam flying into the air. Interesting sense of movement in this painting.

I'm taken with your light, airy sky, which compliments the drama in the foreground.

I agree it is great I would not change a thing.. I like the sky tone Robert.. I think you could easily go to far if you used to strong tonal values in the foreground. The overall tones are spot on

I just finished a book which was placed on the Isle of Wight (Safe House) and I was thinking of you Robert. Must be a really beautiful place, I'm sure. This painting looks quite finished to me. It's strong but beautiful at the same time and I love the openess of the sky and the lonely bird flying high up.

The tiny bird suffices to add a sense of scale to scene - otherwise lacking. I'd probably have dropped in an improbable red blob (a discarded beaker?) somewhere for no good reason other than to ignite the green a bit. But there again I know nothing about oils other than the turps smell in my mother's studio in the 60s (and the odd frustrated groan emanating from within). I'm very fond of the few samples of her work that hang around the house and I'd happily place this lovely placid scene next to them.

Kim - yes, the bird is there to give some sense of scale - and there ain't nothing else! That's why I wasn't sure it was finished - but I took the (I think good) advice to walk away from it. In fact, if you fell off those cliffs you'd be unlikely to survive, but so many parts of the Isle of Wight are like this, if in different ways: J B Priestley (who lived here for a while) described the island as "Hampshire in miniature" - you get features that look big and even massive, but somehow they're not threateningly vast; there's a touch of domesticity about them - I find that difficult to convey at times, but then: that's what I like to do & what interests me about the place. Just now and then, though - I wish we had a few of your mountains....