Live Oak, Ocean Isle, Sunset, acrylic, 36x18, sold

My favorite live oak at the beach set infront of a sunset. I learned a lot and need to do more. I am a chicken when I paint. It would have been easier if I had done the basics, glazed with the sunset reds and oranges, and then added details. But it seeme to take a lot to get it the way I want it. I have also been able to see my faults better when looking at a painting on my computer. Amazing how that works for me.

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Comment by deb hill on July 3, 2011 at 23:04: WOW! Thanks, Richard. Great what YOU did with my attempt. Love it. It is a wonderful opinion and adds the drama I really want! Might be a tricky pick, but as I said, I was chicken while painting. I also had a mid-day picture and decided to use it for the sunset which I kinda made up as I went. So I was really guessing. Also the painting is hung in the gallery now and looking at this photo on line, I realize the colors are more intense in the real thing. One kids came in and said it looked like Lion King! A friend asked me last night if it that was the tree at the beach.... They vacation in the same place. Think that it might be really helpful for us to have more knowledge about getting the photos on line to be truer. Planning to speak with my friend here about this very problem. Maybe a good idea for one of your blogs Thanks so much. I really don't have anyone here who will comment on my work and help me see what can be improved.

PS. Sold two large paintings this week. YEAH!!!

Comment by Richard Robinson on July 3, 2011 at 20:40: You sure picked a tricky one there! The glow from the sun looks good and I think all the detail and sky holes in the tree looks wonderful. The sky and clouds to the right looks to me like it needs another going over to raise its integrity to match the rest of the painting. I also wonder if the Oak foliage is not quite dark enough - realistically I guess we would only be seeing a black silhouette of the tree in this backlit situation, and it's a good practice to raise the value and chroma of the colors to compensate for the inadequacies of photography, but perhaps they're a little too light here which might lesson the impact of the scene. I had a fiddle with it in photoshop (hope you don't mind) and here's the result:

Of course it's always easier to fiddle on the computer than with paint. Great work Deb and I hope you don't mind the suggestions. It's just an opinion.