"This is really Exciting" (UPDATED)

....Well, for me at least. I am trying a new style of painting. I am taking a class that is offered by one of my fellow posters @ Wet Canvas, and being that the class is about Abstract art, I am in a totally new Realm.
What I have learned to date, is that doing anything in art that is outside your comfort zone is very hard, but it can be done, and done well.
I took this photo last Fall when we had experienced a monumental Frost. The plants in the garden were all frozen except for this one. All that the frost had done was turn some of the leaves Pink.

The composition of the jumble of leaves was so very pleasing to me, and I kept the photo in my "For Painting File"
I looked at it so often wishing that I had the expertise to paint it as it looked.

What I learned (in the class) was that you can step out of your comfort zone and do anything as long as you knew colour and composition.
So I began to paint it yesterday.
This is how far I have gotten, and I must say, that I am pleased with my progress.
I tend to be a bit heavy handed with paint.

But this time the paint I am using is very watered down and, I am "Washing" it on as opposed using to solid colour.

"After the Frost"
12" X 16"
Acrylics on canvas
(Work in Progress)

The painting is slow, as I often have to leave it, go away and then go back to assess where I am.
Hope you like this so far.
~~Kathleen

Todays work....
After I painted in the last leaves in the upper left corner, I have begun to work on my colour Values.
This painting is all too much one hue.
I will have to add shadows and deepen the colour of some of the leaves.

But it is getting there.
Thanks for looking.
~~Kathleen