Plein Air @ Mission San José Fremont CA 加州風景寫生


I didn't plan where to paint today until driving down the road, I thought it should not be more than 10 miles driving, but I missed the turn and had to u-turn a couple of times. I decided to paint at Niles in Fremont again.


I was surprised that there was almost no traffic on #880, but the traffic started after I got on the Mission Road. I waited inside the car patiently, noticed it was 96 degrees outside. Felt the waiting time was much longer than the travel all the way here.

Passing through the Mission San José, suddenly I remembered that I wanted to paint this gorgeous historic building each time I passed by, why not today?

Got off the main road, parked my car, then saw a better shady spot and parked the car.  Walked to see where I could paint.  Then walked back to my car and re-parked near where I painted.

It was really hot, I set up my station under an old pepper tree that gave me the most shade. It was almost 4 pm by then and I had to buy bread, the shop closed at 6pm.

I didn't take a reference photo, and rushed into the drawing, then color.  A huge caravan parked in front of my subject.  Well, even though I have been painting outdoors for many years, those things happen and really there is always something unpredictable. 

My watercolor paper kept drying so fast, and it kept me busy for spraying both watercolors and the watercolor paper I worked on.  I felt like I painted on the wrong side of the paper.

I had to start packing up, and drove to the other side of the town and bought our favorite bread.  The store guy told me that their shop closed at 7pm, 6pm was the pandemic closing time.

LOL, Why should I be so in a rush on such a super hot day?   (October 5 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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