- untitled WIP -

This is gorgeous, Juliane. Normally I prefer stronger colors (I don't know if the tones are duller in the image than in reality), but there's just enough green to brighten up the duller colors.

I love the composition. The mountains frame the picture well, and I like that they aren't all exactly the same distance from the central point. I would suggest either marking the edges more or changing the lighting on the rocks at the lower left - they start to fade into the water. The moss or whatever plant that might be is the only way I could tell there was a rock separate from the hillside, but that was only after I took a detailed look.

I'm not sure what the purpose of the aqueduct-like architecture is in the right half of the painting... normally aqueducts bring water to places, but they have to slope down from a water source higher up. If that isn't an aqueduct, but a bridge of some sort, where does it lead? I can't tell if it's leading to a path of some sort on the mountain... there's a hint of something, but it could just be mart of the shading of the rocks.

While the gazebo in the center is perfect, and I love the idea, it's too perfect. Most gazebos come to a point, with flat sections of shingles or slate... yours would have five sections since it has five pillars, though six or eight is more common. They aren't perfectly smooth, and they aren't spherical. I actually like the smoothness, so I'd suggest making it taller (less of a perfect half-sphere), perhaps flared outward at the bottom edge, and add a weather-vane or other decoration at the top point.

My last suggestion is mostly speculation, and since this is an oil painting, it may not be worth the effort. I also may not be able to describe this as well as I'd like, so please ask me to clarify if you are interested. Most mountains look like they are stacked layers - though not perfectly horizontal - rather than a collection of up/down sections. While there are areas where the land shifts so the horizontal layers get slanted up, even sharply, it's unlikely that the entire area in a place this close to sea level would be like that (I think). The two "bunched" looking areas (about an inch from the left at full view size, and about an inch to the right of the gazebo) are too vertical. The far right looks good, even that vertical, partially because the waves are thicker, and because some of the mountains in the area could look like that. The slanted layers of rock on the far right should probably have a gentler slope once they reach the greenish area, rather than dropping off into the cove. If you aimed them toward the top of the aqueduct, and turned the layers into more of a bowl shape rather than aiming them all sharply down, I think you'd get a more realistic effect. You may disagree, or be painting from reality and everything I just said is not relevant. But I thought I'd attempt to convey the thought.

I look forward to seeing what you do with this!
~Marie