Seeing Red

Argh... towards the end of a most frustrating day.
Onto my third attempt at stretching some medium weight watercolour paper. Never had problems with the paper tearing away from the tape before.... but it's a bigger piece of paper than I've ever tried stretching... have resorted to stapling under the tape this time... if this does't work I have to send to London for some heavier stuff that won't require stretching.
It's for this landscape commission which is wider than anything I've tried before....
Apologies to my non arty friends who don't have a clue why anyone would need to stretch a piece of paper.
Basic premise is that when you wet paper it expands... goes all wiggly? Painting on that sorta surface is impossible. So if you pre-wet it and tape it down, it stops that from happening, or if it does it dries nice and flat afterwards...
sigh
...have closed the studio door now and not gonna look until the morning.
Pic -  looking out of the bedroom window at dusk this evening...