Like the rest of your work, Holly, this piece has a lot of style, and I like it very much.
Looking at your painting I'm wondering about your ground. Is this Masonite prepared with an acrylic ground? Did you sand it?
I've tried alla prima painting painting on gessoed surfaces before and I find it really frustrating. I can't make the paint flow off my brush the same way that I can on linen; it always takes a couple of coats of paint to get a good surface going, which defeats the one-shot alla prima technique. Any time I go to an open studio setup I try to remember this and bring linen instead of a panel. I'm just wondering if you had a problem with this surface.
By the way if you like gessoed panels you must try one from
www.realgesso.com. They will send you free samples to try out the surface, too. I'm painting on one right now and it's perfect for tight detail and multiple paint layers.