From the artist: Rocky River, 15"x21", Yarka and Rembrandt Pastels on Sabertooth paper. This piece started as a pleine air work, but I was losing that fabulous light too quickly, so I had to settle for a couple of quick sketches and some photos. The trees behind the bridge looked like they were on fire, which is what created the excitement in this scene for me. I visit this little spot often to paint, but I've never seen it look so magnificent.

The Learning Gallery: Rocky River
Your Original	Strong Points: Yes I do agree that the orange trees help offset the cool predominant colors. The composition is fine. The painting is well simplified. All the nature that was present has been synthesized.

My Modified Version

Areas to Work On: What I suggest is that you work more on your bare winter trees. The long tree trunks would look much better if you add more limbs. Also even though they appear with curves in real life they look better with sharp angles when the limbs depart from the trunks. If you look at the tree trunks where the orange foliage is though you will see that they are all the same length and thickness. Try to vary these.

My Modifications: I added some limbs to the otherwise long almost straight tree trunk. Observe their angles and how they thin out as they recede. For more advice on bare winter trees check out a recentl lesson I published here. I removed a portion of the snow bank that ran all the way across the river. It was blocking the viewer from wandering into the picture. It now provides a more comfortable pathway to the center of interest. I changed the shape of some of the tree trunks behind the bridge. The value on the bridge next to the trees was slightly raised to create more value contrast. The foreground is darker in the water than the middle ground which is darker than the background to help convey the idea of distance by gradation in value. Additional comments: Great job! [ Discuss in the Art Critique Message Forum! ]