It was you who was saying don’t follow him!
Yes Suzy i do like his work , watching his youtubes is facinating.
Thanks Mary, just had a quick look, and interesting .
Hi Glenn, nice painting, the waves are very well painted. Are you open to any criticism? A fresh eye sometimes helps but I don’t want to upset people.
Thanks Suzy, Yes for sure, I think critique can give you new viewpoints and can actually be very helpful in thinking through the “construction” of future studies.
I feel the foreground is confusing, there are 3 parts to the painting and they’re all painted with the same importance. You’re concentrating on the waves so the foreground needs to be simpler, less details. If you were looking at the scene for real you wouldn’t see the detail on the foreground and the waves at the same time. This adds depth to a painting. I’ve just come across a landscape painter, David Tress…talk about free!!
I disagree. To me the foreground is pleasantly blurred, out of focus, so your eyes pass over it to the waves. I also like the how the clouds increase the perspective to the background that is again less detailed
Thanks to both of you for your input here.
I am at a stage where concentrating on how to paint skies, water / sea, and foreshore has been a priority.
Sky/cloud was the first I tackled, and foreshore the last… rocks seemed very difficult to start with, but getting around them.
The actual compositions, have been a lesser priority, in regards to subject, where the eye is drawn, rule of 3’s and a host of other aspects.
So it is going to be experience as to what works and when…and I will learn to think of these different aspect, and bring them to mind at the right times during a painting.
@suzy_davis
You know, I was not intending to put detailed rocks into this at all. But i thought that without, there was just too much vacant space … Or if you mean the detail of the reflections, i’m not sure.
But yes I understand… the fact about detailed work catching the eye. This is one of my achilles heels…putting too much detail …but i think knowing this has helped me reduce.
Maybe just sand would have been better… or nothing.
I’m personally not keen on a variety of abstract, although i find a lot interesting in techniques they use. Most i find just much too busy and confusing, and David Tress would fall into this 
Some, such as a few of Rothko ( or Rothko style), i find can be quite nice.
@Aquitaine
I agree on blurring of the reflections; maybe i should have left it to those, and as said above; the rocks sort of drag the eye down as they are a bit detailed…they even have highlights on the upper sides.
It all makes for interesting perspectives, and thus composition amendments i can make, and hopefully they WILL come to mind at the right times 
I know its not easy thinking of everything. Do you do little sketches first to work out the composition? As you say you did the sky first then the sea, try to see it as a whole. You can do everything together, composition, and painting. I know we always want to do something we’re pleased with, but better to have a painting with good composition and good drawing than a good technique. You’ve put so much into the sea, which looks great its a shame to detract the eye from it with the confusing foreground…even if it appears to David to be blurred. Apparently I can’t write anymore to only you but as theres only David joining in its tricky.
Yes it is sometimes challenging, and often a fail to think of all that one has read or seen, in the way things “should” be done for good composition.
I did not do any sketches for about 10 months after starting. It was not until i was watching some new ( to me) artists, that, that was a good thing to do. To me painting was painting, and drawing was drawing
I do sketch a bit, just not often enough. I sketch, then block paint, before thinking further of dark tones and highlights.
When i say sky first… I meant learnt to paint skies before anything else. I do think of the whole before i start.
I would say most of the time, I think of the effect i want to accomplish… ie night time…or moody sky…etc.
than the sub composition parts that also need thought - which i sometimes forget.
Cannot write anymore to only me ? Not sure what this means…but if it helps, just pm me.
Suzy… you have possibly received a message saying sort of… let others join in. 
… don’t worry. ignore it… this subject is not for everyone and if you are enjoying the chat… keep it going.
I look in from time to time and enjoy all the banter… 
I love paintings… oils, pastels, watercolours, you name it… and it is probably somewhere on our walls… I’m no good at Art… but I know what I like… 
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I was always told painting is drawing with a paintbrush…can’t separate the two but I.d say a good drawing is the base of a good painting.
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Has anyone enjoyed using water-based oil paint? Winsor & Newton makes these, as does Holbein. I’m just beginning to use these. An artist who teaches local classes (local to me, anyway!), for whom I volunteer as a teaching assistant, uses these in her work. http://www.gailsalzman.com/
I like making the brushstrokes themselves, expressive. Oil paints, of course, do this. Traditional oils allow for ‘beautiful brushstrokes’. Water-based oils might provide the same satisfaction but might allow for a bit more control and expression in less time … plus less turps fumes intake? Maybe the water-based oils make it so brushstrokes can overlay without waiting quite so long for those first, thickly-applied ones, to dry. Not sure I could say the exact difference in drying time, but it’s something like days instead of over a week…
Anyway. It’s all very exciting; I’m trained as a sculptor and my primary medium is clay. So the painting is coming along but slowly. Hope this makes sense.
I’ve got a book containing the drawings by Vincent Van Gogh that are now at the Kröller Müller museum in Holland. They are fascinating and it’s great when you recognise one of them reconstructed in one of his paintings. (The KM has more that it’s fair share of those too).
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Thanks Stella…I was rather surprised to see it. A few years ago there was some movement on the art page but it dropped off…glad you’re enjoying it.
Hi Mary,
Have not used those products myself, but am a member of an FB group where some do; and don’t think they report too much against it.
Had a view of Gail’s work… surprisingly for abstract, i liked quite a few… mainly for the composition, colour and shape.
More strength to your bow, I touched clay once at school…total disaster 
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I recently took a workshop where the subject of these paints came up. Firstly water and oil don’t mix so what are they made from and the general opinion of the artists is they’re not brilliant. We’ve also done away with white spirit. We use liquin as a medium and brushes should be washed only in soap and water…turps ruins them.
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