Strong, low sunlight streams in from an unseen window and casts elongated diagonal bands of light and mullion-shaped shadow across a sun-warmed terracotta wall. Where the bands cross, the light gathers into a soft peach glow, while the shadows deepen to oxblood.

Delicate, feathery stems, reminiscent of cow parsley, are silhouetted in umber in the foreground and sit slightly forward of the wall. There are no figures and no horizon, only the wall and the light moving across it.

The oil paint is built up with palette-knife and brush strokes, with thick impasto ridges that catch the light and a coarse canvas tooth showing through the wall. Soft-edged transitions blend the lit and unlit passages into a calm, contemplative study.