How can I get a warm, low-contrast glow in oil landscape paintings?

[Kenneth51]

I’ve been trying to capture the specific quality of late afternoon light in my landscape paintings, but my colors always end up looking either too harsh or too muddy. I’m working in oils and struggling with how to mix the right warm, low-contrast glow without losing depth.

[Ava_J]

I learned to chase that late afternoon light with a small, warmer palette. I kept to burnt sienna, raw umber, ultramarine, Naples yellow, and a little white. I underpainted shapes with a warm earth tone and then built the midtones with thin glazes of Naples yellow over it. The effect came more from careful glazing and edge control than from bombarding the canvas with saturated color. Depth stayed by keeping the shadow side cooler and slightly desaturated, a touch of ultramarine mixed into the browns. It was slow, and drying times really mattered.

[WilliamGM]

I tried that approach and still felt the colors read harsh. I think I was overdoing the warm cast in the foreground and not balancing with cool grays in the distance. I started to mix a dull blue-gray to push back the midtones and used less white, but it still felt flat when I looked from across the room.

[Ava16]

One thing I did was soften edges with a glaze while letting some blocks stay hard-edged for structure. It helped the glow not to feel flat, but I kept losing the sense of depth unless I kept a cool shadow and a slightly cooler reflected light in the mid tones.

[Luke47]

Is it possible the real problem isn’t the color mix but the value map or the lighting of your reference? I sometimes think the scene's values compress when photographed, and then I chase warmth instead of depth. If you have the option, try painting from a quick value sketch in neutral gray first and see if you still need that warm glaze.