Creating complexity in a painting

This is one of my favorites so far, because to me if feels like a moody and poetic painting. I think there's a few reasons for that.
1) This painting was not finished to the extend I normally do, because I painted it during lunch hour at work and I painted this one slowly and did not have time to paint all the details.
2) The hard and soft edges used in various places: If a painting only has either hard or soft edges it can be boring. Painting is not photography, you don't have to have all hard silhouettes. In this case, I tried to create that in many lines, such as where the sky and the mountain meets; from the dock to the water; from the water to the foreground; and in the trees.
3) The different textures, smooth and rough. This result comes naturally from my painting process. I tend to block in big masses to establish the composition and tonal arrangement first, then I would smear out all the pastel marks on the paper, so they sink into the paper and become more stable, so I can paint more layers on top. When I make a new mark over the underpainting, I don't usually smear it, because it would mix with the underpainting and is undesirable. I like to make bolder and thicker strokes, or sometimes rubbing the side of the pastel stick on the paper to create textures. The top layers do not cover up all the underpainting, and this create this interlocking look, such as in the foreground, the trees, the water and the sky.

These elements together result in a painting that has more visual interests, with more variations in terms of how the paint/powders register on the paper.

2013 04 02 - 6.5" x 8.5"

The view