Here’s a little trial painting in which I’m trying to set a scene against the light. First I painted the sky/background in warm yellow, orange, and purple tints. Then I painted the foreground in very light blues, greens, and pink. I added bits of grass to give it some depth and texture. The grass is made up of many colours, and somehow the suggestion of water just arose all by itself.
I painted a row of trees in the background as the front of a forest. The trees had bright yellow, orange, and red leaves. I added some reflections to the bits of water that were in front of them. I added purple shadows to the trees, because the light comes from behind them. I tried to suggest that there were more trees behind the first row by adding trunks in lighter shades in between the more prominent ones.