Susan's Spring Lake painting

   Susan has painted a beautiful painting of a Spring Lake scene. It has some of her signature brush/knife technique without overwhelming the painting-meaning that sometimes can become more about technique than the thing one is trying to represent. A very nice balance here.

Susan is working from a decent reference shot but you can see looking at the photo how much better Susan's interpretation is than the shot.

Just a few notes: It feels as if the blue in the water is a tad too intense and the line between the dark and light area is too hard. The intensity can be easily knocked back by greying it slightly. Alternatively, I would consider simplifying the painting by not attempting to impose the shadow (cast from trees out of the scene) onto the water and instead would continue the reflection without the darker ends. I might then gradate the water from the bottom edge with a little darker and slightly less intense reflection of the sky towards the reflected tree area.

I like all of the color in the trees. Also the variation in sizes. Be cautious not to mix too much of the violet into the greens unless you intend to make them a browner greyed green. As a general rule it's a good idea to keep either the shadows/dark areas simple if the there is a lot of detail or activity in the light side and visa versa. A darker slightly bluer green might be an alternative in the dark areas of the fir trees near the doc. The viot works really well in the right half of the foliage.

I think that the boat was a good choice. I think both it and Ken are keepers.

Great job.