There is a Petrarch quality to the landscape. Like the romantic curls of his humanist sonnets, the landscape simply steals the show. There is not one hue on the a palette from snow top-to-tall grass that is not majestic. The work done on the shore, alone, just baffles me because it is a detail that would usually get overlooked in a portrait. Yet, here it is. Alive. The water rocking against its sand with highlights, midtones and shadows.

That said, the picture begs to follow the Z-formation as far as layout. It doesn’t. My eyes end up on the very tips of the dog’s ears instead of on his face as it should in the z formation. Now, this is my own projection on the piece. I want it to follow that formation because then I can comfortably guide my eye from that masterpiece background to the dog to the grassland. If you were to revisit the piece, and if it is still layers in Photoshop, I would bring the dog up so that his face becomes a little closer to the center. That’s my two cents on how this piece could be improved.

As it stands, this is a great step-away from the usual in your catalogue. It reminds the audience that you are an artist and also brings out what you do best: hidden expressive nature. In all of your pieces, that’s what I look for and wait for. You are outstanding and soar when you do nature. It’s just a shame there isn’t much commission work or proper scenes for comic folk to be standing around in fields.