Work in Progress - Sandpipers, Update 8

My last update on the Sandpipers prompted a number of comments on another website (A Singular Creation) that caused me to re-evaluate it. I asked for comments and opinions on Fine Art America and A Singular Creation, and emailed a number of very talented, knowledgeable and respected wildlife artists whose opinions I thought valuable. That brought a flood of comments ranging from "it looks good just as it is" to suggestions that I change this or that. I'm pleased that none suggested any drastic changes. However, there were enough comments and suggestions that I thought it necessary to take another look at the painting and see if there was room to improve it. There was, I thought. At the risk of being redundant, I've decided to include my thoughts here again from those discussions because many of you may not want to seek them out on those discussion boards. For those of you who do, forgive me for repeating myself. Next week I will post again an Update to the Sandpipers. So, here is what I posted on those discussion boards concerning the Sandpiper painting:

I've spent much time going over comments and advice from everyone on this website and others, and from emails I sent out to other artists who have a great deal more experience and talent than I have. The comments have been thought provoking and helped me to take a further serious look at the Sandpipers painting. It's allowed me to further analyze its strengths and shortcomings. Thanks to all who have made suggestions. It's been hard to decide what to do because suggestions have ranged from "do nothing, it looks good just the way it is" to some criticisms of technique and composition. None have suggested major revisions or "do over". All that just goes to show how a creation can affect many people in many different ways. Everybody is right! We all can look at the same thing and have entirely different responses to it based on our experiences and background. Everyone looks for something different in a painting. It's the feeling one gets by looking at it. That's why we can't always understand why someone wins a juried competition. The judge's background and experience dictates what's important and if another judge were to examine the same paintings, results may be quite different. That's also why so many books have been written. Some people find detail and accuracy very important while others are more concerned with color or tonal balance or composition of elements, and detail is not high on their list. In the end, the artist is the one who has to decide if a painting is "right". The artist has to draw on all of his or her experiences, knowledge, and feel or intuition, technical skills, style and not the least, the helpful criticisms, advice and opinions of others who he or she respects, and how they relate to his or her own feelings. Do the suggestions fit in with the artists style? The artist can't make all the changes or the painting will no longer be his or her painting. The changes have to be in keeping with the artist's style and comfort. If the artist fundamentally disagrees with the change or it doesn't feel right, the change shouldn't be made. But that can only be done if the artist has enough background, knowledge and experience to understand what the change means. I'm not sure if I'm all that experienced yet but I have gone through the comments and made some decisions that will change the painting. I hope that the changes I'm going to make will make the painting better. We'll see after the changes are made. Whether they make the painting better or not, I will learn something from the experience. I will learn something that will help me make a better painting in the future. What works and what doesn't. It will help me to build my knowledge base, to analyze my paintings better,make it easier to analyze criticisms in the future, and help me to evaluate those criticisms in relation to my own (hopefully increased) knowledge base. So, after all this rambling on, here are the changes I've decided will improve the painting. You're welcome to weigh in with your opinions.
1. Strengthen the air bubbles in the foam a bit. Add a bit more to those in the foreground and not to those further back. I still believe that the foam should look real but not have so much detail that it attracts too much attention.
2. Dull the birds in the back a bit to create a bit more depth.
3. Dull the seaweed some. The bright colors of the seaweed were beginning to compete with the birds for attention.
4. Darken the sands in the upper left of the painting. This may help to balance the heavier elements in the lower right.

So, now it's time to get to work. I'll post next week an update to the painting.