Autumn, Rochdale Canal /A

Two great paintings but I think this is my favourite.

Yes I agree with Val, this has something extra.

Many thanks Val and Carole for your valued comments. The main advantage of oils is that you can rework passages easier than with watercolour. Always a little fraught though!

I think I prefer this one too Stephen, but as Val remarked, they are both good!

Thanks once again for your encouraging comments Fiona.

Hi Stephen, I'm commenting on these only because you've been kind enough to do so with some of mine. Which puts me in a kind of quandary - I want to reciprocate, but I really feel too ill-informed and inexperienced. Anyway, the first impulse has won out! I like both, but there are things in both that work better for me. In your first version, I love the misty, ethereal quality of the trees, especially on the right. Tonally, it's perfect for me, but I can see why you wanted changes as the walkers on the towpath on the rhs don't work as a focus - they're too far off-centre, but the eye is drawn to them. The second version solves this with the prominent lone walker in the distance. This works v well for me, as (I think) do the birds. What I feel that the second version loses is, certainly, the misty quality of the framing trees. Also, probably, the extra work on the far hill. I see that the first one was maybe too like the sky/canal, but I think that you're second version is too strong/detailed & loses much of the aerial perspective. As I say, I'm reluctant to post this on the basis of "what do I know?" But maybe you might be interested in "what I see"?

Many thanks Bill for taking the time to give such detailed comments. I agree with most of your thoughts. As I said earlier, it is always difficult to revisit a painting you are not quite happy with, often things get worse, not better!

Glad that my comments were well received! I'm not sure about your "revisiting" often getting worse. I definitely agree with other posters that the second version is better, but I suspect some changes are "overkill", that's all.

Both with your signature style of mellowness, but I think this one has a glowing quality about the sky which I like, Stephen. Nicely done.

Thanks once again Seok.