Plein Air @ China Camp State Park San Rafael CA. 加州風景寫生
Saturday April 13, California Watercolor Association organized to paint out at the park on the Earth Day weekend, otherwise I wouldn't know about this place and drove more than 70 miles to come.
Very pleasant spring weather, I was instantly attracted by the surroundings after short greetings with other artists, I painted an old falling apart house in the morning.
After a lunch break, the volunteers and a docent Ed Lai - one of the founders - gave us a very knowledgeable introduction to China Camp where there used to be about 500 Chinese people living, running a shrimp-fishing business in the village started in nineteen centuries... Part of history was cruel, just liked many Chinese labors who built the railways in old days here. Mr. Lei's eyes turned red with tears, so did mine...
The rest of afternoon I did another painting, but felt very emotional, thought about all immigrants' life, who hadn't gone through all the low-paid, longer hours work, racial unfairly treated, not to mention homesickness, etc., and the current situation, though I am lucky being an artist, my artwork supported and liked by many of my viewers and collectors, still working very hard. Because of we all have to experience to learn the different language, get to know different cultures, work longer hours with the less pay to be accepted by the majority, so we could live peacefully... I think I must come back to paint again.
View the link if you are interested to know more about China Camp State Park:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Camp_State_Park