Paintings for Becky - very first peek

I don't know if you know the story but Becky bought me 100 sheets of watercolor paper. In return I told her I would paint her 10 paintings from which she could choose two. This is what I have so far. Please note that these are all in progress or are not what I will present her with as final 10. I will take you on a little tour
"cheery blossom" That's the idea I was going for, the black slash got way too curly and is unhelpful in the painting, the pink is too busy, and too much like a blob. I like it better cropped down like in the first photo and I think that is how I will end up presenting the painting later. I would like to try this concept again but with more angled lines and more wet looking color.I was trying to do Kentucky inspired landscape with abstract. This is still a work in progress. It's a little loose, too much the same green but I'm not quite sure where to tone down or if I should brighten stuff, should I add more colors and where? I tried adding the red in the background but it doesn't quite go together right. I like the idea. I'd like to work on it some more. I like the composition, I just want to have a better plan for the colors. I would like to do one in yellows and blues that mix together to make greens. Maybe that would be the simplicity and complex coming together. I would also like to try one with the fences white. The fences should fade out in the background.I'm just not sure if this is the sort of picture that Becky was going for. I first tried pouring on colors which I would then slash big streaks of black through but when I was supposed to add the black I couldn't decide where to put it. Now I think I might try turning this into an abstract horses head, very close up. You can see the eye in the upper right corner. Hopefully with the loose lines I could make it look like it was in motion and racing. I think that this painting is too bright for Becky's office. I like that there is lots of white. My priority is to make something for her law office.
This was one of the mix colors. I painted the black on first which was a lot easier to work with but I still feel like I didn't have a plan for the colors. I liked that I was muting the colors down more instead of always the bright primaries. Becky had talked about earth tones, sea foam green, a burnt red, and I want to narrow it down and focus more on those colors

I painted the black as Kentucky inspired fence lines, still trying to keep it very abstract but I think the fence line theme is still pretty obvious, then I tried to use more warm colors and with the greens and all. It's. . .ok. Nothing very dynamic. It looks like a pattern instead of an abstract painting.This is a true Chinese character. I think it mean success and completion or something. I plan on this being two paintings, so these are two images as a pair. When it's cut apart I want to try flipping the designs around and seeing what I get. Still pretty blah. For the time I put into it it's not all that interesting.


This is hard to distinguish. This painting is still on the board and it's a long narrow painting. The yellow above is not part of it. I was just curious what Becky thought of the very square rough pattern. I have plans for this, something more scrap book-y, more colors, more contrasts. I want the squares to be more like frames and colors on paper cutouts that don't stay in the frames. This seems to be deviating away from plans for Becky but I had the intention of making it Kentucky inspired again. I was trying to represent a fence line. I want to have images of horses and racing inspired images in the frame work. You might be able to make out the little horse head I quickly painted. This would be more detailed but it's not all bold and strong.

Then I tried putting some of my paintings together as one. Now we have something. On their own they don't make sense but together they have the black slashing through and being broken up by the borders. I might try some more of this style but it's harsh. I think Becky wanted more calming. I have two more phases I want to try, one is bright flat colors with racing themes. I have some photos of horses heads, jockeys, race tracks. I think I'll calm down the colors a little bit but they will be more blocky.

After that, if Becky liked the landscape I want to work on those. So, any suggestions? I'm not taking any criticism comments, only from Becky, she's the boss, I am finding plenty on my own. I just want inspiring ideas on how to improve, things to try. What sort of images say "Rebecca, fabulously successful lawyer and awesome person, she will take good care of you and everything will be all right"? That's the message I'm trying to give. I started by breaking down the message but like I said, I think the black and the slashes is to harsh. Maybe in big numbers and more color, more spaced apart, the black and colors will change and have a calming affect since they don't make any sense. Security in numbers. Let me know, I am looking forward to all suggestions.