When I painted this the sun was directly over-head, I was standing on granite (hence the pink rock) and there was no shade nearby. I have an umbrella that pokes into the ground and it was a no-go with all the granite, so I, and my painting (& palette), were directly in the sun. I'm sure there are rules against this in the plein air world (please let me know if there are). I definitely thought the granite hill was going to be lighter than it is here, but otherwise it's pretty much what I thought I was painting. : )
