I thought folks might find this interesting. Hope I don't get busted for too many photos!

My wife recently received the following photo from a relative.

She immediately turned to me and said, I would like you to paint this scene for me. I thought "Wow, a commission! I better take my game up a notch".

So, although I normally jump in and just start painting, I thought for this one I would do a little 7"x10" practice. I produced this:

I thought it was ok (photo a bit blue tint), so decided to move on to a 12"x16" version. I did not like the dark underbrush and the sky works in a photo but wasn't sure it worked in a painting. This was the one intended to be framed.

I made my changes and came up with this:

I tried for more brightness on the sunny side, changed the sky to kind of reflect a part sun/part shadow idea, and darkened the left side. Black paint still not working for me here. It is still not what I want. My tree shapes just don't seem to be working.

I saw some posts here that I liked and thought, ok, new approach. Down size the trees, give it a completely different feel by advancing the calendar and see what I get. Again on 12"x16" rough.

You can see I abandoned the dark side. My right side trees did not seem to blend as well as those on left.

Thoughts and comments welcomed along with suggestions. Thank you.