Barrier paintings

Here we are then, two paintings which have me caught in a thousand minds. Many of my compositions feature a distinct "here" and a "there"; these paintings were designed expressly to clarify my area of interest - am I interested in a two adjacent spaces with two characters, or am I interested in the junction - be it boundary or barrier - between them?

On the left we have a very simple composition. The Air Force Memorial, simplified, stylised and almost made animal is blurred into a streaky sky as if taking off. Before it are two barriers, impenetrable brush and a thicket of young silver birch trees which may be a barrier or may be a gateway and adds to the vertical movement in the painting whilst also tying the top and bottom together as if they were pieces of string. Space is very compressed, existing only as three planes and the viewer has no way to step into the painting - of the here/there elements I have spoken about this painting only has a "there", the "here" is implicit and the actual space the viewer occupies. It is a simple, likeable painting.

On the right by contrast we have a looming, organic monster. This is a view along the inside of an oversized hedge which cuts across the mead. Its a very different barrier with a very different handling of space. The perspective of the shrubs creates a tight and difficult space while preventing access to it. The only "here" available for the viewer to occupy is a small patch of sunlight. The painting only hints at the existence of a "there"; the mead and the wooded hill above are glimpsed, out of reach and in blinding sunlight. Although it contains far more space than the first painting it uses it to almost create a claustrophobic feel while the other uses the absence of space to create movement and freedom.

The problem I have with the painting is the unpleasant nature of the hedge. It was intended because the painting would not fulfil its function so well if it was pleasant. Nevertheless, its part of my job to find beauty within the ugliness. To me, juxtaposing bright, clear greens with grey and muddy greens is just ugly. Here though, it is necessary. The greens need to range from the bright to the de-saturated to create space because the bright sunlight and deep shadows mean the transition from light to dark is busy re-creating the weather so isn't available for the creation of space. I'm also uneasy about the texture of the paint. Its texture is true to the scene (every shrub is covered in thin moss) and the change in texture again builds space, but to me its far from attractive. The other painting then inherits a watered down version of these issues as they are intended to work together as a meditation on barriers and boundaries, space and the absence of space, here and there. This then is my simple problem. The paintings do what I want them to, but I don't like them.