Cuenca Landscape

Stone dwellings press into the cliff above the gorge, their walls holding the slant of a late afternoon sun.

This is the quiet of a late afternoon. The whole view seems to pull up from the river, rising along the cliff face to that cluster of dwellings. All the warmth is in the earth tones—sienna and umber for stone and rooftop—while cooler slate grays and soft lavender rest in the shadows. The brushwork just breathes up in the sky. But see how it gets rougher on the rock, almost scraped on, so you can feel the limestone. Finer lines find the windows and balconies. Thicker paint catches the last light on the roofs. The air holds, slow and reverent, as though the town has been listening to itself for a long time.