Plein Air @ Villa Montalvo Saratoga CA 加州風景寫生


Came to paint at one of the most beautiful architectural and historic places. Gorgeous day, not too hot with a blue sky. Really learned how to appreciate the clean air and environment after experiencing the surrounding fires. Spent longer time drawing, but the light and shadows can never stop moving forward. After it was almost done, I messed around a bit, made sure the building stood out. Another vertical painting was done in the shade, got to love this peaceful place. Will be back for sure.

San Francisco Bay Area CA Saratoga, CA, USA
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

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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African American Portraits IV - Why I paint

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On this special day, I'd love share my story how I started painting African American portraits, because some viewers are always curious about what inspires me to paint them. I was told by many that the colors I painted were warm and soft, and the facial expressions were so well captured. I was asked why I kept painting them instead of others, or if I had a secret reason to do so... A lot of very interesting questions... First  I don't think that each artist has to have a hidden reason for painting.  I haven't been professionally trained in a real art school.  Painting Asian faces is challenging to me. I don't live in a neighborhood full of African Americans, but I enjoy their music and culture.  Their face expression can tell a story to a visual artist from China like me. One of my favorite novels is "Gone with the Wind".  I read it many times in Chinese, and watched the movie countless times.  In June 2007, I visited Atlanta, Georgia.  O...
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Plein Air @ Santana Row, San Jose, CA. 加州風景水彩畫寫生

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"When you follow the dream in your heart, you’re energized, inspired, and motivated.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882 American essayist, lecturer, and poet). It was quiet this morning. Not many people passing by. Later getting busier, many trucks stopped to deliver to shops. Wow, it was so warm, about 78 degrees. I finished drinking a whole bottle of water, it reminded me that I really need more water in summer. Again, there was no light on the wall when I started painting. Tiring day from the heat I guess. Santana Row is not only a residential area, also it is a commercial district, full of designer brand shops, bars and restaurants. I used to be a city girl, enjoyed the city life and activities because I was born and raised in one of the oldest cities, Beijing. California life style or maybe living in Silicon Valley, has changed me so much, outdoors for nature and shopping online are my regular activities. I have been to Santana Row only a few times. On the other side from...
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Happy Mother's Day - The Red Shoes

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This piece won the 1st place in the Contest - Shoes on May 18th, 2012.  This painting was inspired by "The Red Shoes", which was first introduced to me by my mother. To me The Red Shoes has become a symbol of a career woman who has devoted her life to her job, or made some sacrifice in life. I painted this piece with my love for my mother.  Slowly I understand her more and more day after day. Happy Mother's Day! Inside and out Mom and I are so different, only one thing I have in common with her - a fast walk. She is outgoing, can make friends everywhere she goes through a very short conversation, rich or poor, old or young, higly educated person or without any education, even in different cultures, sometimes without language communication... She was beautiful and talented in theater arts, dancing, singing and acting. She was chosen to be an actress in a couple of movies when she was very young. Then she became a principal opera singer (western style) preformed o...
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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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Capitola Plein Air 7th Annual Art Festival 2022

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October 31 Day 1 My second year participating the annual Plein Air. Very happy to see Laurie, the event chair, and other artists when I checked in, though it was gray and cold, only 53 degrees. Luckily all the participants got parking permits next to the City Hall. Dragged my stuff walked partway through town and met several painters. Decided to paint on the pier, and got permission from the store owner to set up my gear in front of his shop. There were three or four older guys chatting across from me, some passers by dressed up Halloween outfits complimented my work. Then I moved back to my car, drank water and ate some snack. Went back and started painting my second one, smaller size, but I liked the colors of the building. It was getting colder, watercolor paper wasn't drying, and took much longer to do my next steps. It was about near sunset, so I decided to hit the road for home. November 1 Day 2 It was raining heavily at the location... November 2 Day 3 Arrived there and fou...
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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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Papillon - "蝴蝶"(butterfly)

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Artistic depictions of butterflies have been used in many cultures including Egyptian hieroglyphs 3500 years ago. The ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul" or "mind". The Russian word for "butterfly", бабочка (bábochka), also means "bow tie". It is a diminutive of "baba" or "babka" (= "woman, grandmother, cake"), whence also "babushka" = "grandmother". (Research from Google,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly ) (Please click the image to enlarge) In our Chinese culture , two butterflies flying together symbolize love. Also, Butterfly Lovers is a famous Chinese folktale. In some old cultures, butterflies also symbolize rebirth after being inside a cocoon for a period of time. My birthday again, and I would love to share my butterfly story and captures with viewers, also I feel reborn as well:)! When we were kids, of cou...
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Original Art Story - The Spirit of the Sea Pacific Voyagers

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What a great inspiration! Unknown in advance, I had seen the Pacific Voyagers and seven boats at Monterey Bay, California! August 13, 2011, late afternoon sun shone on the weekend Monterey beach. I saw some unusual boats, actually ancient looking boats, mostly like the boats made by Maori people from New Zealand, anchored to the beach in the bay. I was so attracted by the beauty of those boats, and a couple of handsome sailors paddling people back and forth from the beach to the boats. I didn't want to miss this good opportunity, and started shooting... A local lady chatted with me that these were Pacific Voyagers - a group of Pacific Islanders from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, and Tonga. They started in April of this year, passing the Marquesas, and Hawaii on their journey. Also she said that I missed seeing the landing, which was a traditional American Indian ceremony for welcom...
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In Harmony

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I am pretty sure that I am not the only one Chinese female visual artist interested in studying on black people's face structure, skin tones and the expressions. Since my portrait paintings were uploaded onto the Fine Art America (FAA), I have got mostly positive feedback from the artists over the world. Thanks for that! Born and grew up in Beijing China, studied and lived in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, traveled to many counties in Asia, Europe and South (Central) America and now I have lived in Silicon Valley for over 11 years. I am always interested in different cultures, different people and different food, no political interest at all. America, is one of the biggest countries with multi-cultural identity and we all admire it. If we only could understand each other from the one universal language - Love; if we could treat each just only one race - the human race. But now in the 21st century, I would never have thought I could be so confused by the question of race in th...
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