Lost in Translation

Was invited to another painting session at 16 Main. This one involved no pre-drawn canvas. Instead we were supposed to Bob Ross our way through, complete with fan brushes, white paint to denote where the sky and water met, and a "happy little tree." This painting is supposed to be "Christmas on the Beach."
I did a bad thing. I completely ignored the instructor's color choices and lighting situation. Please let me tell you why. But first, let's look at my painting:

Ok. Now, let's imagine the clouds on the right corner of the painting are actually dark purple and go in a line all the way across the top of the painting. And that blue sky? Imagine it bright yellow. Then the water and the sand are both royal blue with some white mixed in here and there to make it look like shadows and highlights. The tree and grasses/bushes (whatever they are) are all the same green from the tube. If there hadn't been any white mixed in, the whole thing would have looked flatter than a pancake. Perhaps you can guess why I looked at the original I was supposed to copy and thought, "Whaaa...?" Turns out it was supposed to be sunset. My brain did not compute a sunset on the beach where the were only 4 colors straight from the tube without any subtle mixes of color. It was not as easy as it used to be for me to translate the colors in my head like I used to be able to do.  At one point I had a really nice foreground going on with all kinds of cool gradations in it but somehow I blew it. And I messed up a bit but well, can't complain. At least my sand and sea are different colors. And the tree and grass aren't the exact same shade(s) of green.