Plein Air @ Villa Montalvo Saratoga CA


It was a pleasant day, I went to Villa Montalvo and did a Plein Air painting.


Focused on the statues and was inspired by the curvilinear nature of the beautiful landscape, and tried to avoid painting a lot of the trees in the background to create this painting.

Years of painting experience has taught me that I worked too hard on the areas that were not my strengths. Being artists, we should focus on freedom of expression to create what inspires us using our strengths. LOL, it is not too late to learn... (June 15 2023)x
San Francisco Bay Area CA 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

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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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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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 @ Baylands Nature preserve Palo Alto CA

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Many painters get inspired by this location, but I always find that it is difficult to paint. Nice afternoon to meet several artist friend there. Looked that they were half way done when I arrived. Lucky I found this tree, otherwise I couldn't see anything vertical standing out to paint. Near sunset, it was gorgeous! (January 28 2022)
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Paintings with Auspicious Symbols III - Chrysanthemum Study with Chinese Symbols

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Hope my Chinese symbol study which I created this painting with could bring a great deal of positive aspects into your lives.  It contains a number of auspicious symbols including: one turtle, two butterflies and a pair of chairs (a couple of lovers), three Star Gods, three Mandarins, and Nine Chrysanthemum flowers in one vase. Hope my explanation of these symbols could help viewers to understand the meaning, and bring health, happiness and prosperity into your daily lives. Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) symbols are on the vase - The Three Star Gods are the God of Fortune (fuxing 福星), God of Prosperity (luxing 祿星) and God of Longevity (shouxing 寿星), each recognizable by the characteristic iconography. They are often represented together. Vase (花瓶) Because of the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace", vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual pea...
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Happy Valentine's Day 情人節快樂

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It was a busy week for sure! Tuesday I tried to finish the figure study at home studio, but there was still some correction needed... Wednesday, went to see Barbara Tapp's very inspirational demo organized by CWA, great way to learn from her. Did a quick sketch of her. Thursday started another new figure study, still in the very beginning process. Thanks to the model Dan for collecting the original portrait I painted. What a generous gentleman, I sincerely thanks to his support and encouragement. After that, went to a gallery opening, only chatted with a couple of artists, felt so tired and hungry, went home eat. Good night.h the figure study at home studio, but there was still some correction needed... Wednesday, went to see Barbara Tapp's very inspirational demo organized by CWA, great way to learn from her. Did a quick sketch of her. Thursday started another new figure study, still in the very beginning process. Thanks to the model Dan for collecting the original portrait ...
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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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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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​Grateful Heart and Peaceful Mind Help Me to be Creative

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Happy Thanksgiving! "The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see."— Mary Davis Checked my emails in the morning, one of my retuning collectors said "Thanks again! The painting arrived already today. It’s really lovely!!! My husband loves it. We haven’t decided yet where exactly in our living room to hang it but for now it’s visiting the other one (attached)" Wow, it only took five days in the mail for this painting to travel from Silicon Valley to England. I was very happy to see my two old works next to each other.  The small piece was not created yet when the larger one had moved to its England's home.  The larger piece she frame perfectly to fit my vision when I created this contemporary painting.   She reminded me that tomorrow would be the Thanksgiving Day. Decided not to go out painting, though it was a nice day. Cleaned up the house, prepared a duck instead of turkey for tomorrow. Went out and had a simple sandwich lunch with my husband. We chatted abou...
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Capitola Plein Air 6th Annual Art Festival 2021

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“Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse  November 1 - Day 1 I was quite lucky to get an invitation to join the Capitola Plein Air Event, which I always wanted to join, but it didn't fit into my schedule in the past. Felt excited and checked the weather report constantly, but that didn't help to clear the rain. Arrived there in the morning, met the friendly volunteers, and Laurie the event chair, she was very helpful and made each detail super clear to me! Then Al checked in. He knew Capitola quite well, showed me a couple of places that had the great views. So thankful to him! After I drove to Shadowbrook Restaurant, it hadn't opened yet. I thought that I might paint there under the cover of the roof. An elegantly dressed lady told me that I had to call the restaurant manager, etc. So instead I started painting the front of the restaurant from under a tree with my trunk door open in the parking lot. Rain was slowing down a little bit. Another artist came and we met, she ...
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