Painting Number 2

Hi All,
Time seems to be zooming by at a hell of pace, perhaps one of these days it will settle down to a gallop. It's a shame time is going so fast because the best month of the year, for me at any rate, is almost over. The dandelions have gone and the bluebells are on the wane. Still the may flower is looking great and filling the lanes with its heady perfume.

Right, lets get on with it, I'm sure you are dying to see my second painting. I would like to think it is better than the first one, but I'm afraid it isn't.

The subject is one of my favourite trees, the birch. This tree, with its silver white bark is, along with tigers and kingfishers one of the most paint subjects known to man. If you check out some of the galleries on the Internet, you can bet your last lollipop that a birch tree will feature somewhere.

Here is my version, it is painted with Winsor and Newton  watercolours (artists' quality) on 140lb, not watercolour paper.
Method
I masked off the birch trees and when the masking fluid was dry I wet the paper and then painted it wet on wet. I made a few marks in the wet paint with a craft knife in an attempt to be arty crafty and splattered some paint from a tooth brush. Then I added some more details when the initial painting was dry.

So, what do you think. Any comments are welcome, but here's what I think just to get you started.
Bad bits
1 The birch trees taper to quickly and the banding is too stripy.
2 The overall colour is too green. My wife said it looks like I've been on acid and is threatening to hide my sap green so that I will use some other colours.
3 Seems silly now, but why did I do the sky orange? And while I'm mentioning the sky what is all the yellow about? It looks like there's been and explosion in a custard factory.
4 Some of the arty crafty marks that I made with the craft knife are okay but I think I have over done them.

I could go on for a while longer, but I think if I addressed the issues already mentioned I'd have a much better painting.
Good bits
Help me, I'm struggling here.
1 Perhaps the distant trees on the left hand side just below the sky are acceptable if you stand in a candle it room and squint a bit.

I'm disappointed and my score for this one is a measly 8 out of 100, so I've got a long way to go yet. However, I'm not going to get down-arted about it and I'm going to give the birch trees a second go. If you want to see how I get on please catch up with me next time. Until then enjoy your painting.