Happy Lunar New Year - the Year of the Dog

HAPPY Chinese New Year! The Chinese calendar rotates through 12 different animals as well as the five elements, with each year consisting of a combination of the two. February 16, 2016 is the first day of lunar year of the Dog(狗). The Chinese regard they as an auspicious animal, they are honest and loyal, they are our best truest and most reliable friends who can understand the human's spirit and obey to the masters.

We all love dogs, they are one of my most favorite painting subjects too. Hopefully I will get inspired to paint more dogs soon!







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

Paintings with Auspicious Symbols V - Peacocks 孔雀東南飛

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I was inspired by the Chinese traditional folk art style to create a couple of peacocks with eight peony-flowers oil painting on canvas recently, which I named "Peacocks Flying Southeast 孔雀東南飛". "Peacocks Flying Southeast" is well-known to Chinese and is a phenomenal poem in Chinese literary history. It is one of the collections of the Music Academy (YueFu) formed by the Han Dynasty (196—219 AD) courts to gather literary works created largely for the common people. It was about a tragic love story between a young couple, who promised to love each other forever. Perhaps the morbid mother-in-law could not stand the daughter-in-law coming between her and her son. Eventually she broke up the marriage when her son was working out of the town. The young couple’s dream and promise of living together was shattered. Both their families forced them to marry someone else. So this young couple took their own lives, fulfilling their commitment of love in a different world....
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The Old Man and The Sea - Original Watercolor

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This original watercolor painting was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea.  It is one of my favorite watercolors, and a great gift for Father's Day. (Please click the image to enlarge) I read this book in Chinese a long time ago, then I read it again in English when I was studying in Australia. Back to my overseas studying time, I had to take the ferries from the place I lived to school each day for a while. Not mention the terrible home sick I had, the ending of relationship with my first boy-friend, when I struggled with every single little detail in life. But nothing could stop my love of the ocean and I enjoyed taking ferries on beautiful and stormy days. Watching the sun-rising or sun-setting, sailing by the magnificent city landscape and the awesome boats out on the sea, I promised myself that I knew I would overcome the difficulties... Years later, I started painting watercolors after moving to Bay Area in California, and the first one in m...
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Original Art Story - The Colors of La Boca Argentina

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Colorful La Boca grew to become an Italian (mostly from Genoa) district of Buenos Aires, Argentina in a very short time in mid-19th-century. It used to be the area where Italian immigrants arrived, and settled in the poorest of conditions. Their houses were built by the leftover corrugated iron and other waste found in the nearby harbour and industry on the Riachuelo river. In order to make the neighbourhood more interesting, they decided to paint their houses in bright colors by using the leftover paint from boats - hence the many different colours that can be seen. Where first a small river flowed, the area that now is Caminito had tracks installed, and when those were not used anymore, this developed into an ugly, abandoned part of La Boca. There were several museums with paintings portraying its hard-working inhabitants in the shipyards and on the docks. Local artist Quinquela Martín painted the walls of the street, which now we know as Caminito (which means little path in Spanish)...
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Plein Air @ Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Fremont CA 加州風景寫生

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A nice day being in nature, my first time painting here. Love the morning fogginess in the distance. Tried many colors to express the fall feeling, but light and reflection changed too fast. Another gorgeous place to which I must return. On the way back I lost track on the road and ended up at a local small store. Spent $2, bought this 1 foot by 3-foot oblong nan bread, might be lavash -- middle eastern bread anyway. It was so yummy, I kept eating it while driving. If my home were further away, I could have finished the whole nan, haha... You could imagine how yummy the bread was , and how starving I was after painting outdoors all day, lol...
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Original Art Story - African American Women Portraits

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BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN - By Vernon J. Davis Jr. Author of " Love Is The Beautiful Black Woman" Beautiful black woman, Your beauty is surpassed by none. Beautiful black woman, Your sensuous splendor is like the shining sun Your wondrous ways come from your soul Which no one man may hope to control Beautiful black woman, You are the guiding hope of our people Beautiful black woman, your mind maintains your glorious power. Beautiful black woman, Your spirit is like a shining church tower which points the way to heaven above and which seeks to find true love. Beautiful black woman, you are the guiding hope of our people. Beautiful Black woman, Your time is like a precious commodity. Beautiful Black Woman, Your ebony will is strong and free, so take your precious time, and your determined will, and use them both to emphasize what you really feel. Beautiful black woman, you are the guiding hope of our people. Beautiful black woman, In you lies our future! Please view my portrait g...
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Short-pose live male model drawings

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Always look forward to drawing nude models for their short poses. But I felt it was super challenging to draw this one. His body proportions were unique, long and slim. He posed in many twisty positions while standing, I only could try my best, many other artist said that they felt not easy to draw him too. Felt better by knowing I was not the only one that had a hard time. Hahaha... (April 26 2022)
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Plein Air @ an Orchard nearby Campbell CA

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Just realized that I hadn't gone out painting for a week this morning - too much figurative study in studio. Also my annual allergies have started acting up again. Didn't go too far. I found this greenhouse tent a long time ago and today I got to paint it. After my stuff was set up, I saw two older ladies walking toward me, and the language they were speaking sounded like Russian. I said "Hello" and asked them if they were Russian. They responded that yes they were. Their faces were so interesting, instantly I thought they both could be our portrait models. I dug out my business card and passed it to one of the ladies, and told them that we could pay them if they wanted to be our models. I didn't really understand what she said, but she mentioned her daughter and her hands gestured throwing the business card away. Hahaha, I hope she does contact me and they can be models for us. I really only mean to paint their portraits. (February 18 2022)
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Plein Air @ Agnews Historic Park Santa Clara CA 加州風景寫生

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Planned to paint at Alviso. Suddenly I saw this park while driving to the location, so I made a u-turn and instead painted at this historic park. It was a hot day, so I painted in the shade under a big tree. There are many big trees in the park. I have been noticing that there is no way to run out of painting ideas, just so many subjects and I could barely get enough time to practice them all. Of course, to just keep doing it is most important. The power of an artist is that you can see things from a different perspective, create something new or unusual, or even move things around those are impossible to move to a different locations in the painting. I often "move" mountains, the ocean, or buildings, trees, etc,... Today I "moved" trees in a little different location for my composition layout and even brought a dead palm tree back to life. Came home and searched for but couldn't find any history about this park. Wonder why it is called "historic...
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A Generous Bulgarian Artitst - Petko Pemaro

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Struggling through the whole weekend, finally I finished Petko's portrait based on the only one picture I have ever seen of his - his FAA avatar. I hope it could express my thanks to Petko who had made an eight minutes and fifteen seconds long animated slide show with a beautiful music of my oil paintings on Youtube. After I did a search, and I had found out that I was only the one of one hundred eighteen FAA members Petko made such a wonderful work for! Being an artist, I really admire his great work through his FAA online gallery! His painting style is bold and energetic, really represents his passion and devotion to art and to other artists. Now, I feel that I have discovered his incredible soul is much bigger than ordinary artists. I do need some more English language to help express my respect, my honor and my great thanks to him!! Please visit my online gallery at:  http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/   Here is the animated slide show Petko Pemaro made for my o...
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