Thank you both.
Alone is definitely what I was going for in #1; glad that other people can see it.
I think that when I was taking #4 I might have been distracted by all the pretty colors and didn't pay as much attention to composition as I should have...
cdino said:
They are (all of them) HDRs, so thats probably where you're getting the painting vibe from. I didnt want to mention it because people here tend to have such extreme reactions to it.

They are only three exposures each, however, and I tried to keep it subtle. So, perhaps they aren't technically very
good HDRs, because they could have a lot more dynamic range. But again, I like the subtle look and I dont think I could pull it off had I used more more exposures, yet.