View from St Nazaire

This is a favorite view of mine, taken from St Nazaire cathedral
in Beziers, looking N/West.  The water mill is best seen in winter because the trees obscure its view.

In this image I wanted to be rid of the pesky houses at the bottom,
so I simply cloned them out!  It took over one and a half hours, but I think it was worth it..

I'm showing a screen shot of my layers, (Click for a bigger view)
You'll see I've used Liaisons and Necropolis
Liaisons is - Multiply - Opacity @ 100% - Blending @ 84%
Necropolis is - Color Burn Opacity @ 51% - Blending @ 31%

To achieve the painterly effect, I simply use the 'Colour Noise filter' at a very low setting, I then sharpen this with 'Poster Edges' Filter at around 10%.  This pulls it together again, the other layers are those with various light levels at differing depths.