In the Desert Garden

Oil on panel, 8x10

I tried this particular subject three or four times with different tones and brush strokes and finally was satisfied with this one. I found that to express a sunny day, a painting needs to have a good stretch of values, from lightest light 7 to 9 on a scale of 10 to the darkest dark, 1 to 3. It is pretty logical in reality or in theory, because value, as well as color, is relative. In a cloudy day, even though the shadows should even be darker than in the sunny day, we don't have to paint them as dark, as long as the lightest light isn't as light.

I could be wrong. I'll keep painting to find out if I'm right on this.