This sunset was photographed after one of Albuquerque's fabulous rain storms right at sunset. I thought it gave a perfect "advance/retreat" example of colors. I only used black and two actual colors.....blue and orange.....and by adjusting the saturation, hue, and value of each one came up with the rest of what you see. The cloud at the top right of the picture advances because of the warm pink-orange. The setting sun and sky around it are also very warm colors and probably become the focal point (except it competes a little with that big cloud at the top right). The blues and grays, to my eye anyway, recede dramatically. The houses in the foreground don't make for a good composition for a picture, but I left them in because it demonstrates that the muddy color recedes more than anything else in the painting.

The color of the frame was picked from one of the clouds.....not the darkest point because it was too heavy an effect, but a value a step or two up from the lowest.

(Copyright for this painting belongs solely to Nita Mata. Image may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed written consent of the artist.)