From the Painting Guide: This is indeed a very fine try as a first painting for 37 years. There is an evocative quality of calm and peace, and of organisation. You've tackled several different textures and forms. What you may want to work on is the idea of shading and shadow around three-dimensional objects, for example the two cylinders on the left show conflicting light sources. Look at where the shadows of these fall and then at the light area on the front of the cups. The darker, shadow part of these also have no reflected colour from nearby surfaces in them (a bit of yellow and orange/brown in them); these use only monochrome versions of their main colour to indicate form. You could also consider using a little of a complementary colour in a shadow.

In terms of composition, there is always a tendency at first to place objects edge to edge, such as the two cylinders or to align things with the edge of eventual the canvas, for example the letter opener. This gives a still life a somewhat artificial feel; it implies a construction rather than chance observation.

Is this painting finished? Only the artist can ever answer that one.