Questioning my decision to use the palette knife in the foreground

Hi Jeff, I’ve been enjoying your unassuming painterly offerings
Like your past postings, its a likeable effort, so well done, one always sees thought and care in your work, and a respect for the medium.
Yes, the palette knife, good question.
The issue is the overall surface, not the foreground.
One would logically expect the same type of surface texture over the whole painting, and here it jumps from the knife area to the brush area.
I personally use EITHER the brush or the knife throughout.
I’ve seen Richard Schmid (a master) use the brush with highlights laid in with the knife: but uniformly across the surface, so there is consistency for the eye to understand.
BUT… I like the design and colour.
Oh… and the signpost should be straighter, IMHO
All the best!

:::

This painting is gorgeous, beautiful composition and light. I would add smaller touches of knifework (smaller than foreground so that you’ll have natural perspective) to the too-smooth middle ground (base and middle of the hill beyond the road). The lights may need to be lighter on the base of the hill but cooler, of course, than the foreground. Then, your surface should be unified but with some variety.

You did a great job with the palette knife for the foreground. The contrast of the grass looks great, with the light and dark colors coming in nicely. I like the diversity of textures you used everywhere, from the soft background colors to the more rugged more bold colors at the forefront. Great and elegant painting that depicts realism of a simple subject matter, executed in a way that makes this very pleasing to look at.