A charming scene from the Old Country, dissected

Above is a picture sent to me for a crit via e-mail. Below is my photoshopped version.

• The painting had a problem called "one for each eye", the two Churches gave it dueling focal points. I moved one over to the left of the other and grouped them so they would read together as one unit. Moving one of the churches also rebalanced the painting in a more interesting and less symmetrical way. I know it is no longer accurate to the actual place, but this is art not a postcard.
• I worked on eliminating the repetitive stripeyness that was a problem across the middle of the painting. To do that I cut down on the number of trees and arranged them into groups rather than a band from left to right across the picture plane. I varied their sizes and shapes some. The negative spaces between the trees formed repeating saw toothed shapes or pyramids. I got rid of that.
• I got more variety into the shapes of the groves behind the white trees.
• I made the roof lines a little more varied. I also rearranged the light on the distant hill to lead the viewer down into the town area.
• I varied the borders of the road to make it more "organic" I also threw some little accents across the foreground to suggest detail and plane changes amongst the grasses.
• I glazed a gray-red over the top of the sky to make it less flat.

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Announcing Snowcamp 2 which will be held February 5th, 6th and 7th. The first workshop is filled and I will run a second. Go here to sign up. Class size is limited to ten only, this is a small intense workshop at a beautiful inn located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire