Getting a painting over the line

I recently completed this painting. My gradual unconscious interest in wave-like forms in my paintings started with my reflections on the ocean as a metaphor for universal consciousness; with you and I and all other sentient beings as waves on the ocean. Existing for a short while and passing. Each wave unique. Waves may die but the ocean lives forever. We're part of something that never dies. Nice. I can now die happily ever after, as Bob Dylan sang.

So I photographed it, as one does, and thoughts turned to the next painting.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the result but there was one part of it that my eye kept returning to. Something irritating. Time has taught me that it's worth investing the time to get it right. A painting can last a long time. This was the issue:

I'm not excessively fussy and I know that it could grow on me in time but this really failed the good egg / bad egg test. I tried a few solutions out digitally:

None satisfied. I resigned myself to having to live with the painting as it is and hope that in time I would forget about the stone in the shoe. Of course, in that state of acceptance, the solution hit me in the face. This.