shrub of flame

Okay, so here's today's daily effort! If you are reading this you must be my friends, so you can see this progression. You have to start at the bottom of today's post.
Here's the current permutation. I like it to look at, but we'll see if it stops there.

Next, the first stage in today's transformation of this painting in the studio:
First, the 6 x 8 plein air oil sketch from a couple months ago that never had quite enough value differentiation to make me happy. This is how it really looked though, a red bush and yellow trees in my neighborhood on a grey day: