Winter afternoon

We've had a very dry fall here on the Front Range. Day after day, it's been gorgeous and in the 60s... disaster must be imminent, right? Around here, it usually comes in the form of fires if we go long enough without snow.

But the midafternoon light has been gorgeous. This painting is of the southwest corner of the house, where we have some ornamental grass growing. We are close to the winter solstice and the low sunlight is a cool kind of golden color. This painting uses three colors: quinacridone gold (DS), alizarin crimson (WN), and Prussian blue (WN); I also used a bit of Hansa yellow light (DS) in the initial wet wash. I was surprised at how cool the final result was (cool as in color temperature, not cool as in nifty).