Plein Air @ Chinatown San Francisco CA

There were twenty Chinese artists painting San Francisco Chinatown today, though it was Sunday just after Thanksgiving. 

Felt excited to accept the invitation. Drove about hundred miles back forth to Chinatown wasn't a big deal for me.  But it was extremely challenging to find a parking spot.  I knew there were a couple of garages for parking, but it can be difficult for me to find my car afterwards.  Chinatown is not big, but I caught every single traffic light before each turn, had to wait super patiently for the crowds to cross the streets on this Sunday morning.  


Finally, I parked my car on one street nearby a Chinese grocery store.  The sign confused me as to whether I could park there or not.  I guessed that was why no one was parked there.  There was an older Chinese guy parking his car behind me.  He looked like a local person and answered my question "It is Sunday, you can park here!"


Our organizer told us to start painting about 10:30 AM. It was almost 11 AM.  I dragged my stuff walking on Clay St, passing by a couple of artists who were started a long way ahead of me.  Found a street scene that inspired me, I thought I was well protected from the sun and passing by tourist because I set up my workstation halfway in an alcove of a front door to a small apartment building, about 10 mailboxes only.  Who knew later during my three hours of painting, there were about at least ten people in and out.  This was Chinatown I reminded myself...



Might be lunchtime, more people and cars in the streets.  Some people passing by complimented my work, others asked for directions, even for restaurant recommendations.  I laughed inside as I can count on my hands the number of times I'd been here in the past 20 years and I was always rushing in and out.  Today  was my first time painting here.  At the same time I felt happy, because they knew I was one of Chinese people here they could trust and could hopefully answer their questions.


Got chance to meet more Chinese artists at Chinatown Restaurant, which was one of the sponsors of the event and provided many delicious food dishes.  The restaurant owner and a couple important people from the Chinese Society gave us speeches.  Some part of the history I didn't know before was very inspiring... They, I mean we Chinese feel proud of Chinatown, one of places we could share our culture, history, food etc, with world.  We all turned in our artworks to support and rebuild the community's confidence through COID-19 and encourage health, love success and prosperity in the coming years.  (November 28 2121)



San Francisco Bay Area CA Chinatown, San Francisco, 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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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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Original Art Stories - Tribute to Whitney Houston

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Plein Air @ Baylands Nature preserve Palo Alto CA 加州風景寫生

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3 hours session live model study in oil - work in progress

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Time flies, already December of the year!  It has been over one month since I did a three-hour session of an oil live model study.  The same model from the previous session.  I painted her from a different angle.  Tried to remind myself to paint loosely without too much care.  I like the new gray paper I just bought, the tones came out very efficiently.  (December 2 2021)
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Plein Air @ Downtown Woodside CA and Short-pose male live model drawing

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It wasn't a perfect day for Plein Air, I brought my work stuff and went to check where I could paint. All just because of my curiosity about downtown Woodside. Not easy to find a parking spot, walked around a little bit. Not sure why it seemed to me that this tiny downtown was so interesting to come and check out. Might be the day I got lost in the mountain for an hour, and finally I found some people were in the town. Parked my car off the street. And I decided to paint the interesting building called the Firehouse Bistro, looked like a historic building to me. But there wasn't anything I could find on Google out, only the restaurant. I spent a lot of time working on the sky, later found out it wasn't necessary since the sky was behind on my painting. Caught up a little sunlight, it really did help me to understand the relationship of each part of building and surrounding construction. Great exercise, would be back on a sunny day to paint! In the early evening ...
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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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Study on Boats I - Oil Paintings

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