Breakthrough. Again.

A year ago I said that I had a breakthrough with painting when, after an eight-year "hiatus," I picked up a brush one day and quickly whipped out a little 8 x 10" landscape. I felt like I had truly broken through some invisible barrier that had kept me from painting for all kinds of lame "reasons." So now, a year into my renaissance, I hit a big block of frustration and I didn't want to lose my momentum again. I was agonizing over a big picture. I was going on a month of painting here and there on it, and not happy with any results but felt obligated to press on. I literally turned it around and leaned it up against the wall.
I started watching videos of alla prima painting, and at the next opportunity I tried it on a piece of 11 x 17" canvas paper. This cloud painting is the result. My mouth hung open as I painted it and when I finished. It just worked, just like the little landscape did a year ago. The keys to both were "quick" and "small." At the same time I picked up Carol Marine's book Daily Painting with the subtitle: Paint small and often to become a more creative, productive, and successful artist. I couldn't have said it better myself.
So for now I'm going to try to stick with the "littles" and not inch back into large figure work. I'll go back to it eventually--I love it and want to paint them--but simply put I need to practice more before the big performance.