To Landscape Or Not No Landscape

I am always amazed as I peruse through the work of fellow artists how diverse the interest areas tend to be. Abstact painters tend to paint abstract pieces and they often have preferences for certain forms and certain color patterns... Some people's work is saturatted with red or blue while others prefer charcoal as the main protagonist in their work.
I am focussed on the colours and forms present in the forest and streams. I am particularly interested in the way sunlight creates highlights certain forms and underlines others with shadows.
Where does the motivation to paint a stream or a brightly lit path through a forest come from? I am not sure. However, I spent three hours wandering with my camera and my sketch pad yesterday in the middle of a gorgeous sunny fall day just soaking in images. The main question on my mind was how I would paint that patch of red leaves framed by the dark blue of the lake in the background.
Yesterday, I set out to try and capture the great egret that I spotted earlier in the week. I planned to get closer and try and get close up shots given it is not camera shy like the great blue heron. In fact as birds go, I would suggest it actually enjoys showing off for the camera. I did spot it but from a distance and in a location that I could not approach. I gave up on the egret and I found myself entranced by the beautiful fall colours mirrored on the pond. Three hours later, I woke up and realized I had been wandering from one spot to the next... sketching a crook in a tree, birds basking in the sun on a log, and taking multiple pictures of one thing and another.

I have always been captured by nature... I have always talked to the trees... I have always sketched mushrooms and rocks and trees and mountains... It is this strong connection to nature that comes out in my painting. It is the desire to capture these moments of visual pleasure and share them that interests me. I am further attracted to water in all of it's forms... calm and reflecting the world around it or churning rapids ripping through everything in it's path. I struggle to decipher the dancing of sunlight through the various layers of water. Water offers a variety of views simultaneously. A lake presents a mirror like reflection of the trees in the distance while simultaneously allowing a transparent view of the rocks soaking on the shore at your feet.
I paint to express this feeling of amazement about the wonders of the world around me. I don't expect it to change the world. I hope that my paintings allow people to experience some of the feeling of amazement present when I first encountered certain places. Maybe some can enjoy the pictures for a moment and forget about the hardships of everyday life.