I think you found your medium, Pat!!
I love that vase especially! It's clean and it's thoughtfully edited and has some neat color things happening. Flowers are also nice.
Compare the flowers where you kept your color clean vs. where you mixed in some dark how overcast it got. So one of the main tricks is to do your color selection to get to the final color before putting it down and not rely on mixing so much with paint already down -- to a point. You can glaze over in layers but pay attention to what happens and when it works best as one of the tools in your bag o' tricks. Which colors work best together and which confuse it.
Anyway you're cooking now kid. Go go go!
"Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream