What's Behind in Old Town Gaithersburg

I have painted the same view in Gaithersburg's historic downtown district more than once and I'm never satisfied with the result.  Today I started working on that same view again and ended up scraping the paint off the canvas.

One idea that always sticks in my mind is that if you think you've found something you want to paint, set up your stuff and then turn around and paint what's behind you.  It's a way to force yourself to take a fresh look at the way you choose your subject matter.  I definitely needed a new idea for what I was working on today.

This is the start of a painting of what was behind me.   A coffee shop sign, railroad crossing, a gas station.  I was painting into wet paint (somehow scraping still left a lot of paint behind) so the red tinge is largely from the red building that used to be in that spot.  It works, in part, so I think I will be keeping some of it as I get back into this painting on Wednesday.