a beautiful gift for Mark. He will love what you've done here

Very nice

How beautiful this looks with this lovely atmosphere that you have created. A great gift for Mark. 😀

Its dream time. You are too hard on yourself. This is superb. If you have Topaz you might try a few filters from it and see what happens.

A wonderful otherworldly look in this. I think you did a fine job. :)

nice one

What a beautiful place !!

Very successful!

Thief! Thief! (Not funny...) Tara, this is beautiful. A must-see, full size. And when seen full view, you've made a mixture of a painting and a washed print. It's got a washed-over feeling, like you lightened it, then brushed it over with a brush that soaks half the photons out of the photograph (!), and you're left with this landscape seen through a special frosted lens. It's very much a tara high key work (I don't do images like this), and it has a print feeling. Also, you emphasized horizontal and vertical lines inherent in the image---your many straight white lines (from Topaz?)---which are like a markup---for an artist---of the abstract 'bones' of the landscape. (Bernard Buffet painted such lines in a number of his paintings; but your lines create a quiet contemplation whereas his are fairly dominating.) It's a combo of serenity and analysis...and it has beautiful silvery tones, and the trees almost look like wood/potato prints. Also, you got 'grain' in some of your lines, making this almost like a decayed photo, with creases across the surface. A beautiful piece, and I hope you do this more, as you're a natural at this kind of transformation. It's totally a Tara piece.

(I'll share more of this privately, but my high key work is much more conservative, vis a vis the photograph: I don't transform it so much as accentuate what are already photographic staples: Ie, exposure, whites, desaturation, etc. I do it in small increments, like one might season a soup w/ small pinches of seasoning until the right flavor is achieved. And I blur everrrr so slightly, and sharpen the resultant image everrrr so slightly, sometimes 2 or 3 times over. Very slight increments, like sanding a sculpture a little at a time. And then, bring out blacks, and accentuate individual hues ((Selective Color, and Desaturate/Saturate---only with the individual colors in the Saturation drop-down menu, not the "Master" saturation))---and all that, in very small increments. It's like rubbing clay very slightly, over and over, until you achieve a very smooth finish. In water high-keys, I didn't change the water per se, just bleached it of much of its hue. But then---this is key---I often darken the bleached image by using "black" in "Selective Colors," as that brings out the black that's already there---key!---and so one brings out the 'bare bones' of the original...and, since so much of the original is now bleached away, those bare bones suddenly become predominant in a way they can't be with all those pesky colors all around...And then I tone them down...keeping the darks, but now making them whisper rather than shout. There are many techniques, and I'll share them ear to ear...but mine heeds closer to the photo, whereas you've coaxed out an 'inner' photo as much as retained the original. Also, half of my high keys were taken in high key---ie, in the camera (w/ purposeful high ISO's, slower shudder speeds, etc). But you can emulate that in PS too, as you know well; I've emulated maybe half my high keys from darker originals. ((I have many I haven't posted yet.)) I'll send you some normals along with the high key versions, so you can see. But what you've done is all your own, Tara, something I would have a hard time even conceiving. In either case, it's like black and white: Such treatments get at pure form, light and shadow, in ways that color rarely can. Like a string quartet as opposed to a fully symphony. Imagine bleaching someone you love, spiritually; putting them through spiritual photoshop filters ((with their approval)), and thereby getting at pure shining essences, making their inner qualities soft and airy, so they suddenly shine like silk with the sun shining through it. You did that above...We'll talk about it later....)

Tara, I think you did a brilliant job here and on the thumbnail, I thought it was a Mark piece :) This is mighty beautiful. OMG! I so love the shapes of the trees.

A great "misty" atmosphere.

The inspiration you've found in Mark's works is very much present in this beautiful image! I know what you mean - sometimes it's difficult to know when to stop fiddling about with an image, and just let it sing. This one is a symphony.

That's a neat place.

This looks like a design printed on silk. It is a fantastic glow about it, and I would like to make a fancy dress or a duvet cover. Or curtains, I really admire your result, Tara. It has a very specific touch.