Think like a viewer to this work for a moment Bill. What is the "ah-hah?" Why did the artist feel he had to paint this. What screamed at the artist with insistence, "PAINT ME!!!!!!"
If a painting seems to lack punch or scream interest...it is because it must first be found interesting to the artist before it will be interesting to the viewer.
If the "ah-hah!" has the dynamics necessary to make a great painting, it will not be necessary for the painter to wonder what to do with it. The scene will make so great its demands that you will feel helpless.
I'm not saying there is no "ah-Hah!" here, but...your asking gives me the feeling....you have no sense of the "ah-Hah!" to reveal to us...so, now....one must be created as though one existed.
For outdoor painters...such is usually found in the dynamic play of light and shadows, contrasts and drama of color.
The scene requires an "ah-HAH!" and our suggestions would more or less reveal more about what grabs our jugular than it would indicate what grabs yours. You are going to have to decide Bill...what would most excite your aesthetic senses to see come out of this piece...then, it is a fairly easy matter from there to make suggestions.
Here is the kind of "ah-Hah!" that would have caught my eye enough to say "Paint Me!" but...then again, it may say more about me. I imagined a meadow framed by trees on both sides, the farthest being part of a higher ridge. All backlit by the sun.
Its the drama of light for me...what catches your eye?
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Larry
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The Artsmentor
"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do!" Edgar Degas
[This message has been edited by lseiler (edited March 05, 2001).]