Pleinair @ Niles Community Park Fremont CA


Recently I discovered this beautiful park in Niles. So I planned to paint there until sunset.

Gorgeous fall afternoon, but I hit intolerable traffic on the way even though I thought that it was before rush hour. It was almost 4 pm after I found a spot and set up my work station.


The sketch part was super easy, not much detail, but relocated the trees a little bit. After that I was struggling work with color, which I usually don't need to worry about much.

Just because that bald mountain was getting sienna color during sunsetting, and the reflection into the water.  I tried warm tone colors I carried with me, seemed that none of them worked well in this watercolor.  Maybe I really should work on a value study before laying down colors instantly.

There were a couple of guys fishing on the deck.  One told me that he didn't even get a bite from a fish.  Felt we had the similar unexpected result at the same location, LOL...

The traffic was not as slow on my return thank goodness.
(September 28 2023)
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

The Old Man and The Sea - Original Watercolor

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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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Paintings with Auspicious Symbols V - Peacocks 孔雀東南飛

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Plein Air @ Municipal Rose Garden San Jose CA 加州風景寫生

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Beautiful weather and went back to the Rose Garden in San Jose with a group of locacale artists.  This 5.5–acre Municipal Rose Garden is in full bloom with thousands of roses. It is named "America's Best Rose Garden." I have been here to paint a couple of times as I remember.  I hesitated to decide what to paint in such a lovely place.  I did a water fountain painting and the flowers arches before.   Saw another artist passing by, after chatting a little bit with her, I made up my mind to paint the artches again, and put her into my work. It still felt a little chilly in the shade while I was painting.  Another painter I just met named Allen was giving me a little feedback.  Always nice to hear other's opions. I wonder why I feel tired easier, the pollen made my eyes itchy and sensitive, and my whole body was fighting with it even though I was well protected with mask and sunglasses.  Finished around noon.  (May 13 2024)
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Short-pose live male model drawings

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Plein Air @ Villa Montalvo Saratoga CA

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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
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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 @ Foothills Nature Preserve Palo Alto CA 加州風景寫生

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This morning was only 40 degrees when I started out driving on the road. I checked the weather that it wouldn't rain in the morning, thought I should go to Plein Air. I was pretty sure that I had painted at the Foothill park last spring, and remembered that it wasn't too cold while painting on a sunny morning. There were only a few vehicles in the park. I saw two people walking their dogs and drove on the top of the hill where I thought I did a painting last year, and noticed all the trees were growing taller in the distance. I still thought to paint the same spot, so I could see if my outdoor painting skills have improved. It was chilly, saw there was still snow  on top of the distant mountains.  I told myself that I should use as little water as possible for the watercolor Plein Air, from my years' experience, I learned that paper won't dry if there was too much water, especially in the cold weather. I heard a guy playing guitar and singing songs nearby me, but I was...
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Carson House - Almaden Historic District San Jose California

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This property, Carson House, located at Almaden historic district, San Jose, California. It has been placed on the National register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. The one I painted was based on the sketches I did on Christmas day 2017. After the painting was done, I did some research to view the old photos, and realized that there was no cactus in front of the house. I wonder how old those cactus are. The red color fruits on the cactus are very beautiful too. It made me really want to visit this museum as well, but it was closed. Next time I will make it. Original watercolor of this painting is available for a collector.  Please view a better image @ https://fineartamerica.com/featured/carson-house-california-landscape-6-xueling-zou.html?viewall=true Carson House 1854  One of three complete adobe house in New Almaden made of creek gravel and adobe mud. From the plaque on the wall:  In 1855 a plan of the settleme...
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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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