The 20 lives of a painting

This is the story of a painting with 20 lives. I started it in November and have been experimenting with it ever since. I have to say, it has been a bit of a struggle, but not like a bad struggle, more like a puzzle... a stubborn one. I compare the process to doing a Bob Klahn crossword puzzle in the Washington Post. I always groan when I see one, because I know what I'm in for, but I know that if I stick with it, I'll get it. That's how I felt about this painting all along. 

My intention at the beginning was to paint a large abstract design and then cut it up into smaller pieces, to make a bunch of little paintings. I put gesso on the watercolor paper and textured it with a plaster spreader.

 A light wash of acrylic paint to bring out the texture in the gesso.

 I draw in two long lines to turn it into a landscape and add some buildings.

 In the sky, blue, water-soluble oil pastel and trees with charcoal pencil.

 Green acrylic mixed with matte medium over the "field".

 Trees in the foreground with charcoal.

 More color around the trees and in the field, on the buildings. I'm still thinking I'm going to cut up the painting into smaller pieces at this point.

 The field gets changed to a darker color to get what is now a little town to stand out. More color on the buildings, too. This painting is not speaking to me. I'm thinking here, for some reason, that I need to make it work as a big painting before I cut it up.

 In an effort to try to make it work I get rid of the little town, which has been bothering me, by covering it with tissue paper secured with matte medium.

 I have no idea what I was thinking here! Huh?

 I paint over that real quick.

 Maybe some large trees in the foreground?? Nah.

 I cover the bottom part with tissue and paint it.

 I hate the tissue. It feels great to scrape it off.

 Feels even better to sand it with a power tool!

 Cute!!! Little sheep. I think I'd had too much wine. I was really perplexed here. What on earth did this painting want from me?

 I go back to the tall trees in the foreground, looking at an earlier painting that I liked. After this I cover the whole surface with a wash of light green.

 Finally. Charcoal and acrylic trees. You can still see the little sheep in the background. I probably won't attempt a large horizontal painting again for a while. I prefer working with a vertical format for sure.

 (I'm not going to cut this up.)