The pilgrim's dream

I want to start off by saying that I adore this piece. It's become habitual for most of us, I think, to briefly glance at new work and move on with a brief impression; our world is so image-saturated that it's impossible to consistently devote more attention. Despite that guilty habit, this piece grabbed me for a second look. And a third. And I'm still trying to figure out why.

The colors are so incredibly beautiful, and they fade and flow into each other seamlessly. The effect is one of a dreamy, almost spiritual atmosphere -- like taking a peek into a more intense and vivid reality. The way you varied the textures, from abstract to more realistic, is lovely... I'm really impressed by how you clearly preserved the integrity of the watercolor's textures, yet use it to differentiate between rock, water, sky and mist. The composition and placement of negative space are also artfully done, and help draw the eye to the house in the distance in a similarly dreamy, fantastical way.

If I have any critiques at all, and this is a very slight one, it would be that the house seems slightly under-defined compared to the richness of the cliffs around it. There's almost too much bleeding of colors, so that the shape itself gets lost, especially in the small view. Making it a little more hyper realistic would strengthen the impact, by contrasting with the loose abstraction of the rest of the piece. But that's all in hindsight, probably something to consider for future works rather than to risk reworking/ruining this lovely gem <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="391" title=" (Smile)"/>