LOST IN THE WOODS

This painting caught my eye immediately in the thumbnail - the selection of colours and the stark rusty browns and reds of the trees against the soft hues of the pond and grass really stand out.

There is a golden, perennial-summer quality to the atmosphere in this painting that resembles late afternoon sunlight. There also is a nice contrast between the ramrod-straight trunks of the trees on the right and the more naturalistic hypnotic swirls on the left and below the centre of the image.

It's the placement of little bizarre and beautiful details around the riverbanks (i.e. black stars, eyelid in the tree trunk, mushrooms in the pond, heart suspended on the left, brightly coloured petals etc - some of them almost suggest physical presences, like unseen spectators to this odd meeting) that really give this its dreamlike aura. There is plenty going on to ensure the viewer never gets bored or runs out of things to look at. The placement of the character (candy cane neck with the body of a seal) in the foreground looking back toward the cyclopean female character seated in the fallen tree on the riverbank creates a sense of intrigue and unspoken communication, inviting the viewer to come up with their own context to what is happening here. And then there's the little eyeball in the tree trunk! Very very cool.

The only thing I can think of that might have been an idea worth incorporating in this image is use of more dramatic or pronounced lighting - although the colours on their own generate enough contrast and interest as discussed above.

In summary I think what you've managed to do quite successfully here as a whole is play with the notion of what is organic and what isn't - the characters and little details like the coloured petals or the eyelid in the trunk etc almost seem to grow out of the ground or the landscape like plants. They could have been placed there or they might be natural inhabitants of the setting - you can never be sure. The characters might have been sitting there only a few seconds or they too might be parts of the landscape, they might have been having this conversation for years in a silent tableau. A surreal fairy-tale vision with a tangible atmosphere and sense of stillness, almost timelessness despite its fascinating quirkiness.