I think I'm happy with this next stage. I might be finished ? I really went all out in my approach to painting the trees. More highlights and looser brush strokes. More random accents of color and I just feel like its abstract enough to give the impression of a trees with bark patterns, but also seem strange and surreal enough to just look out of place in this dark, moody landscape. I feel it's at a stage where the only thing for the viewer to do is really consider the picture as an idea after the initial attention was for the painting to seem real. Now if the trees look out of place or abstract shapes, then there's nothing really left to ponder other than to interpret the picture as a construction of an idea. Now the art begins.....

I've added some more accents of reds and blues, greens to the grass areas. I'll let it rest for a while now and look at it with fresh eyes in the next couple of weeks.

In this session I really went to town on reworking the trees. As I said earlier, I wasn't liking the tightness of the patterns and marks. I just wanted to let loose and feel my way around a lot more. It's as if a painting begins to be exactly as you've imagined in your head to begin with - its a dead painting for me. Painting is something you do to invent and create from an idea or inspiration. For me, one color or mark on the surface leads to another until something starts to form. The picture is a painting and it looks like a painting and it can't be anything else. Sounds strange but the act of painting is like nothing else on this earth. The result for me is something left from a series of marks with the brush and a play with all manner of colors. It always looks like a painting in the end. That's what I really like - a painting that looks like it is. Fortunately the final image is somewhat different to what I imagined it to be. Yes it changed, it grew into something else and it's meaning also changed with that. I feel differently about the whole picture from when I first started it, six sessions have gone by and Im glad to be at this stage still changing things and having fun with it all.

So back to the tightness of the trees, I've added some highlights. In the next session I'd like to abstract the marks a lot more until the viewer can't help but try to see the painting as something looking real but also see the abstract shapes too at the same time. I really want the trees to jump out and dazzle the eye and look as if the shapes are just about to fall down or scatter in a gust of wind.

In this session I worked on the background grass areas and playing a bit with the tones on the trees. The grass areas were mixed using Ivory Black and Yellow Ochre and hints of Burnt Umber. Remembering that just about all colors I've used have brown in common. This helps with harmony and tonal shift. To highlight the impure greens I've used a variation of reds, oranges and yellow mixed with Burnt Umber. This is a kind of complementary color scheme. Maybe Split more so. The foreground is similar, but purer in the pinks, oranges and accents of blue-greens.

The trees are a bit tight and I'm bored with them to be frank. I want to push them really far in the next session. I want the picture to just look like its about to hit you in the face if you know what I mean. Jump out and blind you a bit.

Had a long break from this painting. My last session 6 was on the 20th of May. I worked on it yesterday. My main focus was to consider pushing back and neutralising some colors, especially paying more attention to the areas around the branches. But in saying that, I still work on the entire piece by adding color where needed in other parts. I also worked on the sky and changed the tone of blue to slightly lighter. The greens I mixed I had great fun with. Keeping in mind that I'm adding either grey to everything or a brown.

I'll let the painting dry a bit and finish it in the next session. I just want to add some final touches and clean up any areas which are not as sharp as they should be. Also I want to consider a great title to this piece. In the meantime I'll be working on the painting on board in progress at the moment.

Had a good couple of days working on the 2 recent paintings. Stared at them enough to make me sick of them being unfinished. Sometimes this can go on for weeks or months. Today I worked on the tree trunks. I wanted to model and define some more shapes. Also add some light and dark areas by adjusting the tones if the colors. My mixing colors were Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Ivory Black, Cerulean Blue and Zinc White. Very few colors and with these colors so many tones can be produced. Beautiful greys and warm creams too.

I'm still to work on the lightest part of the bark.