Where Was I The Day They Told Us How To Mix Greens?

 I struggle with many aspects of painting, and making believable, natural greens is just one of them.

My urban art school had some trees on campus and we were encouraged to draw them, but there were no landscape classes as such. I follow the general rule that it's best to mix the greens with combinations of yellow (Cadmiums, mostly) and yellow ochres and blues like Ultramarine and Thalo. But I think I may have been missing the day our instructors gave us the secret recipe to creating the fabulous, ethereal landscapes that I see other artists paint. 

Today I worked on two pieces with large green areas and actually made a little progress:

                                  Resting Place, © 2022, work in progress (click on image for larger view)              

I wanted a sense of back lighting, and the yellow-greens are getting that idea across.

Next, I washed some more dull yellow over the house in the background, and used a bigger brush on the foliage:

                       Somerville Roses, © 2022, work in progress (click on image for larger view)   

And because I keep seeing things that need to be changed, I added some pale pink to the highlight areas of the clouds. NOW it IS finished! REALLY!

                       Sunrise Over the Cove, © 2022 (click on image for larger view)   

 At this point, I'm taking a break but soon will attack the green foreground in Three Fox Vineyards.