I definitely agree that the third one is the most painterly, and it's my favorite of the three.
The first one feels too "canned" to me. Mostly because I can readily spot many places, especially the tallest grass, where various clumps of grass across the image are identical and have been kind of stamped on over and over.
The second one is a lot better because the softening got rid of the repeated sharp details that made it easy to spot that it was digitally made. Although the lightening of the darkest values across the image kind of takes away any real center of focus. It needs some point of interest, like a coyote running across the image.
I like the interplay between the greens and blues of the third one, and especially the areas that look like multiple transparent washes overlapping.
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Linear Mode
