A Rare [for me] Landscape

I've always loved this photo of birch trees that I took last year in the park. The shadows on the ground and on the trunks are so beautiful.

Initially, I tried spattering with a toothbrush and spraying, but didn't like the effect, so I tried again with sponging. 

Then I went over the entire leafy are with the lightest color I'd used, a leaf green by da Vinci watercolors.

I started some foreground w/w washes of two mixtures,  using quin. gold and phthalo blue.

This is basically what the foreground grasses look like. I find I don't have the patience to play with Photoshop to correct hues.

Studio light.

Day light

The entire painting is actually warmer, more intense, and the green is not so shocking in the foreground grasses. Anyway, this foray into landscapes was fun. I'll do more in the future. I'm not sure about attempting plein air, though - I really like to have everything there where I expect it to be, and without bugs, glaring sun or wind.

As always, your comments are most welcome. 

Lenny's Cousin "Blu"

   I'd like to introduce another member of Lenny's family, Blu. Apparently the blue American lobster numbers one out of two million lobsters.

I started very wet, with aureolin, quin. burnt orange and a bit of quin.  pink.

I had to mask the entire form before I did another wet "drop in the pigment" wash of burnt orange,  quin. violet and a touch of indanthrone blue.

Masking off. Wet-in-wet with quin. pink [very thin] and cobalt blue.

More w/w with cobalt blue and indanthrone blue.

I did a bit of lifting to suggest light source form right, painted the antennae, did some detail work, and I think I will call it "Done".  The framable size is 11 x 9 in. or 27 x 23 cm.