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Dear Monique, this is a fine work and especially strong in likeness.
I personally don't feel you should worry about the foliage, which you suceeded in pushing in the background though still retaining its feeling of reality.
The difference in light between the children and the background makes the portrait more theatrical, fairy tale like, they make me think of Hansel and Gretel !
Technically if you feel you want to work more on it, I think you could add some cooler greyer colours in the skintones, especially in the girl's legs and the boy's arm (maybe breaking the long strokes down the forearm and looking for structure, to avoid the pipe effect).
On a deeper level, though charmed by the perfection and elegance of the painting, I somehow find you are at risk of a certain coolness, distance.
I can sense an involvment on your behalf which is there but not completely expressed. I am not sure how you could do that, maybe opening the edges a little will help to achieve more movement and actively take control of the painting over the reference.
Ilaria
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