Readers' have clearly enjoyed following the acrylic painting exercises set by Paul Talbot-Greaves in his new series in The Artist. We have had a fantastic selection of work sent in over the past few weeks for the first of his challenges - 'Field Textures' which appeared in the January issue.

From the paintings (all of which can be seen here) Paul selected Sandra Middleton's version (see below) for appraisal this month, saying 'I would like to acknowledge everybody who has sent paintings in. It’s really great to see them all and how people have interpreted them differently. Whilst looking at them I kept having to remind myself that it’s not a competition and I’m not selecting the best but instead, selecting one that follows the remit of the challenge.'

Paul's appraisal

Great effort here Sandra. You’ve really utilised the techniques to make as much of the bland foreground as possible. Not an easy challenge with so much foreground space, so I like the way you have utilised the dark values, the yellow and the oranges in un-thinned paint and applied a thinner wash over the top, creating interesting rivulets of colour. If you have another go at this I would suggest you make the sky a simple powder blue colour. This will provide a band of easy colour which will place more emphasis on the textured field as well as colour contrast against the dominant orange. Also, as indistinct as it is, you really need to tighten up on the focus of the farm building, perhaps by extending the darker trees behind it to make more contrast. This will make your painting much stronger in terms of design. I really like the runny paint effect but try to make it more in keeping with the colour scheme if you can, ie a slightly lighter yellow/orange. Apologies if it already is (I know how colours can look different in a photograph). Thank you so much for taking up the challenge and I hope you find my comments helpful?

Happy Painting.

Look out for more of Paul's exercises over the coming months (we already have some great 'Shadows on a Path' from the February issue) and send in your versions to [email protected] for inclusion in the gallery and the chance of a critique from Paul.