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

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