Plein Air @ Villa Montalvo Saratoga CA

Checked my Plein Air history, today was my eighth time painting at this location. Not only because it was a perfect day, also because another local artist would like to paint outdoors together. I suggested to start at Villa Montalvo, because there are plenty of subject choices to start a painting.


I spent a longer time to draw the building, and noticed later that I didn't really need all the details after all. But it was a good practice. (October 15 2021)



My first time painted Villa Montalvo on April 5 2018

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

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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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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Plein Air @ near Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport CA

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Weather report said that there was a storm coming today. The rain stopped this morning, I went out without a target for outdoor painting. Got lost in an industrial area nearby the airport, instantly I saw many interesting subjects to paint. But it wasn't easy to find a parking spot. I painted next to a camper parked on the sidewalk. The person owned it really made it looked like a home. There was a solar panel connected, and there were garden stuff, like potted plants, outdoor cook etc.  The clouds looked very unique, but they were not easy to paint on such a gray day.   Many airplanes flew overhead making a very loud sound, I wondered when I could get started traveling again?  After my work was done, I packed and it started  raining again.  Felt lucky that my painting and I didn't get a single drop, perfect timing without knowing in advance, lol...
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San Francisco - a Charming City 旧金山市

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San Francisco is an international landmark city which has its own charms attracting visitors from all over the world. It is only about 40 miles from Silicon Valley where I live to the city - about a 45 minutes drive without traffic. There are not enough train lines here like on the east coast, so, most of us have to consider about the highway traffic. This is the main reason that the life style in Silicon Valley has totally changed me. Living in the valley for over 11 years now, I have been to San Francisco countable times. Each visit, I felt that I never had enough fun, though the weather was never predictable. There are many houses - like painted ladies and skyscrapers; there are many advertisements, signs going up and down, following the hills. I love to visit museums, MOMA, De Young, Legion of Honor, Asian Art, even the California Academy of Sciences. I enjoyed the shows in the Opera House, all kinds of delicious food, a rich variety of restaurant choices. Walking around Lombar...
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Seven Daffodils"七株水仙花" - Painting with Auspicious Symbols VIII

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"Seven Daffodils"was one of the few English songs I heard back when I still lived in China. I really enjoyed listening to it and dreamed about it... Now, I just finished this original oil painting on canvas for sale, 36"x24"x1.5, ©xueling zou. (Please click the image to enlarge) Daffodils bloom in spring time, come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes of flowers and are always surprising me, though they look very simple. The question was which type I should choose for creating the painting, I did research online, the results came out in countless numbers. Well, I decided to focus on creativity. Hope you will like this original painting in the impressionist style to express the feeling on a beautiful Easter morning... In China, we celebrate the Lunar New Year by displaying auspicious symbols. Daffodils, also water narcissus (水仙花) are one of the most popular flowers important for representing prosperity in Chinese New Year. We believed that if th...
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Paintings with Auspicious Symbols II - Chrysanthemum and Frog

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Chrysanthemum often called mums or chrysanths, are perennial flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae which are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. It is one of the longevity or strengthened symbols in Chinese culture, which signify long lasting and has durability. Thus Love, success, commitments, luck - what you wish could last forever can be augmented by displaying these beautiful autumn flowers. Vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual peace and harmony in the home". This is because the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace". The vase is also one of the eight auspicious signs of Buddhism being one of the objects found on the footprints of Buddha. One of the most popular words that is frequently rendered in calligraphy is the word that means Longevity. When the characters that are written are also auspicious words, those are usually regar...
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Aloha Surfer - Inspiration can come from anywhere...

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(Please click the image to enlarge) I didn't posted new paintings for a long time.  There were a couple paintings, but they didn't come out the way I expected.  Still I have many ideas I'd like to try.  Why the result wasn't come out the way I want... In March, an old friend introduced her friend to me online because the new friend is coming with her American husband, their daughter and a dog to settle down in Maui, Hawaii soon. Instantly, we found a major common that we both love art.  She started learning drawing many years ago too.  I saw she posted many beautiful photo-realistic drawings online.  Simply, I started to imagine how she would like the life style in Miami since she is Chinese from Shanghai, one of the biggest city in China. Then, I saw her post that she ran six kilometers one day.  What?  I am not a sporty person, to me it is impossible.  She told me that she was runner, used to win a couple of competitions when s...
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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@Japanese Friendship Garden San Jose CA 加州風景寫生

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🙏Say prayers for all the people impacted by the fires in California! It looked gray, not too smoky, might be still effected by the nearby fire. Good to know that such an oriental garden exists in Silicon Valley. First time I came here, and so happy to see 10 other artists at the location and what they painted. I instantly found my spot to paint. Actually the whole garden was under major works, the pond was dry. I stood at the bottom of the pond to paint. Took me a while to do a small study, and draw the bridge, added my own water into the pond . After my painting was done, Will Maller, a very respected artist used his own made Golden radial ruler measured my work, seemed everything located by following the Golden rules. Did that mean my composition was perfect? I doubted it.... Had got some compliments from other artists. I think they were very kind and encouraged me. Later I walked further, found out a water lily pond behind, I will be back soon for sure. (August 31 2020)
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