Matt,
I find your work most enjoyable. This one is no exception. The extent of my critique is stimulated by the impact of your picture on my own creative impulses. I read your blog and learned how you are land-locked in Cheltenham and so finally getting the rocks, foam and water with the sky working for you is a well-deserved reward.
My critcisms are not for required changes, just ideas you might consider.
Composition-wise, I'd have made more use of the very physicality of the rocks. That's where the argument is occurring. There's not enough as one would want in the sky to justify not dedicating more of the picture's real estate to the fight between the dashing energetic waves and the rocks that don't want to budge and will be shaped and altered anyway by the unrelenting thundering waters. The sky, simply cannot compete with this formidable pair, the water and rocks, locked in combat. Well let's forget all that, since that's not what inspired you. That's only what inspires me looking at your picture.
I must say I would prefer to see a landscape format and grab more of this view, but them I'm greedy for sensation and experience. You have been successful in preserving and then rendering the high tonalities in the rushing waves crashing over the rocks. At the same time, I'd like to see some work on the water, using an S curve, perhaps, to bring out the play of the light on the cold dark waters.
I know you did 40 layers on the pinched face you showed. What did you do to get this seascape prepared?
Thanks for sharing
