You've inspired me to try working with more of an impressionist approach on a super huge canvas, and then scaling it down dramatically. This looks too darn beautiful and atmospheric. I've always had a hard time working my BG's in under 7 hours for my animation, and this might be an answer to my enviromental drawings! But enough babble from me lol. The lighting in this picture is sharp, from dark to warm to cold as we progress to the tree. What's most intriguing about this particular piece is the use of blur like johnjohn said. You blur what's dark to put more focus on the brightly colored aspects you want to pop out. Overall, fantastic artwork.