Beginning landscape...

I've started taking classes from Vinita Pappas, a wonderful local artist. Vinita is an excellent teacher - well organized, methodical, encouraging and humorous. She's just joined EDM, so you'll soon be seeing her work. She does, however, insist that we do quick value and color studies before beginning a painting. My preferred method is to skip that and go from what I see in my mind's eye to picking up the paintbrush and creating it. But since that hasn't worked out too well for me, I'm making a real effort to slow down and think things through before I begin. Her first lessons have been on landscapes, which I've never done before. I'm not sure that's even an area I want to focus on. But here is one of my first attempts, painted from a photo taken in the rural area where I live. In the first version, I've cropped the badly painted barn and evergreen. Not sure which I prefer. What do you think?

There are just so many things wrong with this. Maybe a few splatters of paint would help...
Probably not.

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb.