Painting time of day

I've been working lately, among other things, on paying close attention to the color of light at different times of day. Thanks to some wonderfully concise instruction from Elin Pendleton, (see her painting blog here) I've clarified my own understanding of how light changes from morning, to noon, to evening. Both the color of sunlit and shadow areas are affected by the time of day, and artists can communicate a feeling of morning or afternoon, or evening, or moonlight, by how they choose colors.
Here is a small (5x5) study of morning light. There's a bit of mist, so common here in New England early in the day, which gives a diffuse and soft quality to the distant objects.
Sheep are a favorite subject of mine, and I think they fit well in the mood I wanted to set in this early morning view. I hope you like it!

Painting Silver Objects

Here are two paintings, both of the same silver carafe. I simplified it a bit for the painting with the blue bowl. Painting silver gives me fits sometimes. It absorbs so much of the background color that sometimes it almost doesn't have a color of its own. Under the right lighting conditions, it can virtually disappear except for reflections. I am fortunate to have studied under the very gracious and knowledgable tutelage of Leah Lopez. You can see Leah's fabulous work on her website She reminded me recently (after I complained about painting silver) that it is usually best to paint silver either as a dark against a lighter background, or as a light against a darker background. So here I have done that. I modified the painting with the pears from a previous version to incorporate this idea.. it shows the carafe as a light against dark, and the second painting shows it as a dark against a light. Which do you like better?