What can i do to capture the afternoon glow in landscape painting without mud?

[Adam69]

I’ve been trying to capture the feeling of a specific, fleeting light in my landscape paintings, but my attempts just look muddy and overworked. I’m stuck on how to suggest that late afternoon glow without relying on heavy impasto or over-blending.

[StevenH]

I hear you. That late afternoon glow feels like a whisper on the edge of the canvas. When I tried to pull it off, the colors went muddy the moment I stacked warm tones on top of midtones.

[DonaldJA]

What helped me was keeping the light as thin as possible—a few almost transparent layers—and leaving the brightest bits as bare or minimally touched. It keeps the glow from getting muddy and the edges from hardening.

[ScottPL]

I gave glazing a shot with a sheer red-orange over a cooler underpainting, and I swear the light winked for a moment, then it vanished as I pressed too hard. Frustrating and I just moved on.

[Luna.W]

Do you think the issue is color temperature relationships or maybe the surface texture grabbing the paint too much? Or could the problem be that the eye just wants one bright focal note rather than the whole area radiating?