“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.”
Henry David Thoreau

One of the challenges I (and I know many other landscape painters face) is learning how to simplify.  Capturing the essence of your subject with as few marks or shapes as possible makes for a strong design (one you can read across the room) and in general makes a stronger statement.  I love this example of how Picasso evolved the drawing of a bull from a detailed representation to just a few lines.

To work on this skill, I selected a reference photo with as few shapes and color variations as possible.  This painting was done from a reference photo I took in Big Sur, CA.  Notice in this study how there are very few shapes and only about 7 main color mixtures.  I could have rendered this more fully and modeled the clouds or other shapes, but I think (at least for this composition and study) it would have detracted from the impression.  Of course, this is also somewhat a matter of personal taste.  It fits the bill for me, as I strive towards more abstraction in my work. Simplification is part of that path.