Carson House - Almaden Historic District San Jose California

This property, Carson House, located at Almaden historic district, San Jose, California. It has been placed on the National register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.


The one I painted was based on the sketches I did on Christmas day 2017. After the painting was done, I did some research to view the old photos, and realized that there was no cactus in front of the house. I wonder how old those cactus are. The red color fruits on the cactus are very beautiful too. It made me really want to visit this museum as well, but it was closed. Next time I will make it.

Original watercolor of this painting is available for a collector.  Please view a better image @ https://fineartamerica.com/featured/carson-house-california-landscape-6-xueling-zou.html?viewall=true

Carson House 1854 

One of three complete adobe house in New Almaden made of creek gravel and adobe mud. From the plaque on the wall: 

In 1855 a plan of the settlement of the Hacienda, including all homes south of casa grande (The manager's home), to the reduction of works of New Almaden Mine, show House No.1 to No.25 on the creek side of the road. George Carson arrived in New Almaden in Auguest, 1883, inhabiting adobe cottage No.13. He acted as a telegrapher,bookkeeper and postmaster for the company. He later became wells-fargo express agent and held all positions until his death in 1903. Purchased by James E. and Adelaide B.Harley on March 20, 1926. Dedicated May 21, 1982 by James E. and Adelaide Harley, Kambish, Purham families and Mountain Charlie Chapter No. 1850, E.Clampus Vitus. 

Here is the link from Santa Clara County for the history behind: https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/santaclara/alm.htm

Historic American Buildings Survey, link 
https://www.loc.gov/item/ca0942/ 
http://www.mountaincharlie1850.org/pl_carson_h
Storytelling artist Xueling Zou who works in ♦️ watercolor & ♦️ oil mediums on ♦️ original art Plein Air paintings. Ship worldwide since 2010 @ https://about.me/xuelingzou@ about.me/xuelingzou or http://xueling-zou.pixels.com

Original Art Story

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Original Art Story - The Colors of La Boca Argentina

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Paintings with Auspicious Symbols V - Peacocks 孔雀東南飛

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Plein Air @ Jose Higuera Adobe Park Milpitas CA

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Plein Air @ home before sunset Bay Area CA

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Chinese Moon Festival II - A Classical Poem and Homesick 中秋节思乡

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Dream in the Night — Interpreted by Xu YuanChong Abed, I see a silvery light, I wonder if it's frost aground. Looking up, I find the moon bright; Bowing, in homesickness I'm drowned. 静夜思 — 李白 床前明月光， 疑是地上霜。 举头望明月， 低头思故乡。 (Please click the image to enlarge) This poem written by Li Bai (701 – 762) who was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period  - China's "golden age" of classical Chinese poetry (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bai ). It was one of the first classical poems I was taught before my primary school. Of course, I would not know the meaning at that young age. The older I get and the farther I live from home, the deeper I feel this poem, which is more often appearing in my head. Hiding my tears used to be part my character. But now, I can no longer control it behind my eyes whenever I think of it... Another Mid-Autumn Festival is coming again, which is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese...
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Plein Air @ Allied Arts Guild Menlo Park CA

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Plein Air trip @ Carmel by the sea, CA

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Four-day-trip, it wasn't long, especially when we painted at the one of most beautiful places, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Three artist friends together, we made progress from May 3 to May 6. It was a nice and clear afternoon when we checked in Hyatt Carmel Highlands - Hyatt Inn.  There was an amazing sunset view overlooking Big Sur Coast from our room every dawn.  Bought enough food from Safe Way.  We cooked and ate branches, and late dinners, went out painting about six hours each day.     Weather was unpredictable, it changes dramatically all the time, from warm sunny to windy foggy in one hour.   First day wasn't easy, didn't know how to handle the fast changes.  Then started to learn and improved...  I did two watercolor paintings, one sketch on the first day. After dinner, one of the artists suggested painted another still life after I arranged our food on the table. Next day, we painted at Garrapata State Park. T...
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Short-pose live male model drawings

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Seems that working in the studio and Plein Air outdoors are quite different in many ways. Went to Carmel Plein Air painting with my friends for four days, missed the last session for short-pose live model drawing. So I found that I had difficult time to draw. No matter two minutes, five minutes or ten minutes, I could not draw fast and correctly enough, didn't have time to draw a leg or arm. This model was good, he worked very hard, I saw his body shaking during the pose. Of course we all pay good tips to our models. (May 10 2022)
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