Deserted Splendor

Finished! I had to finish it by today to submit it to this competition I wanted to enter, and just barely made it. Like finally finished painting, photographed it, burned the CD, and dropped it off at the post office 5 minutes before they closed. Haha! I win. Although that did mean I missed and (even worse!) made my wonderfully supportive, loving, fantastic husband miss pretty much the whole 2nd half of the University of Oregon's football game (and that was the only good half). Thanks love! But I finished it. Even after I ruined it last night. I'm not even kidding. I decided that to suggest the rocks above the cliff and below it, I should try splattering a variety of colors. And after convincing my other, more reasonable and conservative side to just go for it, I did ... and it stunk! It looked awful. Dreadful. Wretched. It ruined the whole darn thing. Didn't match the style AT ALL. I was bouncing all around, looking at it from all angles, trying to see a way in which it wasn't a disaster. There was none. So I tried to wash it off. And you could still totally see it. And then my eyes fell upon my old, hardly-used tube of white gouache (more opaque than watercolor). And I used it to save the painting. More than that even because combined with a couple of other colors, it created a much better, stronger sandy color that I am a big fan of. In fact, I think it makes for a stronger painting. How often does a bad, rash decision turn out so well?! Haha! I also made a few other, smarter changes like lightening the purple mountains and darkening or intensifying the trees so they stood out more instead of getting lost in the mountain. And I think it's fun, even if I did possibly overuse my new leaf green color (bright, light, yellow green). What do you think?
*This painting was done for this month's Virtual Paintout challenge (It should show up on the site soon). I've wanted to do it for months but have never got around to it. I finally did, with 2 whole days to spare in the month!