Minor Changes Can Improve a Painting

I painted Gone To Ruins this past summer. I entered it into a competition in the fall and it was rejected. 

It was, in ways, a hard piece to paint in my style, because it is a structure and there are no organic elements except for the sky. I liked many parts of the painting, but always felt it was too static. I also saw the small pieces going out of the painting as too busy.  

Because I still had faith in the painting, I decided to make some minor changes to correct the 2 things I saw as problems with the piece.

 

Gone To Ruins   (Before)

 

Gone To Ruins (After)

To add a bit of movement to the piece, I made a small stamp and used it in a number of places to add interest, a sense of play, and detail to tie the large blocks to the more intricate interior. I also reworked the lower portion to eliminate the smaller blocks that had pulled the eye out of the painting. 

I entered the revised version of the painting in the Emerald Art Center's National Show competition and the piece was accepted. 

Do you see the changes as improvements?