Painting Number 3

Hi all,
A week goes very quickly when you get to my age, but I managed to crack off another painting. Following on from the watercolour birch trees that I produced in painting number 2,  I thought I'd have another go and see if I could make an improvement. "It wouldn't be too difficult," I said quietly to myself.

My inspiration for better things this time, came from seeing a painting by Jane Betteridge in her book "Watercolours unleashed." Jane is one of those artists who paints with a lot of confidence and it shows in her work. My wife and I attended an exhibition of hers earlier in the year at Ticknall village hall and she had some great art on display. Her book is well worth a read and will inspire any artist who is stuck in a rut. Here is a link to Jane's website . Please don't forget to come back and have a giggle at my efforts.

Part of me would like to paint in her style, but yet another part of me doesn't want my paintings to be quite so loose. I like the idea of using Jane's style and technique for my backgrounds and something more detailed in the foreground. I guess I can only dream at the moment but one of these days, who knows.

Anyway, here's my painting of some birch trees in a bluebell wood. It is painted with Winsor and Newton artists' watercolours on 140lb Langton paper.

I suppose it is slightly better than my last painting but only because it isn't as green. The method I used isn't worth relating so I'll just get on with the review.

My review
Bad bits
1 Again I've gone for a sunburst yellow background and again, that looks totally daft.
2 The bluebells in the middle ground look okay, but I could have done with adding some in the foreground with more detail.
3 The foreground foliage in general is rather pathetic. I sprinkled some salt on it to give it some interest but I'm not impressed.
4 The birch trees have their markings all coming from the same side, which when you thing about it is really absurd.

Good bits
None

I can summarise this painting in one word, crap. I know it is only my third attempt but I was hoping for better. I'll score it just to be consistent but it isn't getting anything higher than a 7 out of 100.

What do you think, am I being to hard on myself? Your comments are very welcome.