Although I love to paint them, I find landscapes very challenging.  I tend to copy things literally which is wonderful when painting or drawing still lives, but is not so good with landscapes.  In order to successfully paint a landscape an artist needs to be looser and really focus on the different shapes of color rather than the individual leaves and blades of grass.   This is a landscape I finished in class yesterday.  I learned so much from the composition and from painting the foliage on the trees.