This is a landscape, oil painting on canvas, 16 x 20". Not the best of photos, since some of the colors appear to have lost their intensity. I worked in the studio off a reference photo. I tried to keep it loose and not noodle it too much. Focal point is about 4 feet from the canvas. I painted it over a four week period in three hour sessions.

• Your painting reminds me of a very good artist named Paul Strisik.
• You put in the least detail thus simplifying the painting. Your greens are nice and soothing.
• The clouds float nicely in the sky.
• A few brushstrokes in the foreground give the feeling of tall grass.

I have a couple of comments.

1. Trees taper off to very thin branches unless they're dead. Some of your trees seem like they survived a forest fire where the thin branches didn't survive. Trees without foliage is where I have seen many artists fail. One important thing is to take into account is the thicker the branch the darker the value. When a branch becomes thinner in the same proportion its value lightens until it is hardly noticed against the sky.

2. There seems to be a center of interest lacking. Please read my two critiques in these URL pages.

• A Forest Path
• An Early Morning in Spring

3. Adding a man made structure will immediately become the main attraction....

Instead of adding a man made structure, I increased the size of your puddle and added some reflections. So now this area is more pleasing to look at thus becoming the focal point. Notice how the trees limbs and small branches slowly fade into the sky, becoming almost invisible. Next time you see a tree in the winter, squint your eyes and look at the top branches. I adjusted the value and hue in the sky. There wasn't enough green in the picture to justify a greenish sky so I shifted it to a bluer one. I warmed up the clouds near the horizon. The foreground was darkened and the background went up a notch in value.