My friend's cabin is located in the high desert of New Mexico on a south-facing slope. I painted it on Daler-Rowney Prestige paper, using mostly W-N and Schminke paints. I really like painting skies with the Schminke Finest Ultramarine paint for the intense color and smooth application. Somehow, in NM, paintings are often about the sky. I also used an old Prismacolor silver pencil to highlight the juniper branches. (I have a hoard of these pencils dating from the 70's; they are very difficult to acquire now).
I took up Heidi's suggestions and went on to modify the painting.