Capitola Plein Air 8th Annual Art Festival 2023

Laurie Hill, the organizer of Capitola Plein Air Evert, gave me a personal orientation before I started. 


Weather was perfect, I was in a rush and felt excited to start working, but forgot my parking permit.  No worries, I saw a flower stand on the corner of Monterey St and Park Ave.  A Mexican Lady carried a baby, and two others looked like teenage girl helpers.



Surprisingly, their business was very good.  Every several minutes someone stopped by and bought flowers. Not mention it was Tuesday.  I thought people usually buy flowers before the weekend.


After my work was done, the younger teenager asked me if it was OK to take a photo, the lady with the baby she talked to me in Spanish, which I didn't understand. They took photo, then we had photo together.

Next day, I met a newly wed couple from Texas while I was painting outside Zelda's on the Beach.  They seemed very interested in my work.  I gave them the Sunday exhibition info, hopefully they would come.


Last year I almost missed the reception at the Shadowbrook.  Not this year, I planned to paint in front of the restaurant.  Not a good painting, I didn't like it, and didn't put into the show later.


But the reception was fun.  I met old friends artists and some new ones as well.  Wine, food, chat and photo together, I didn't miss a little bit...

Someone called me before I left the restaurant, it was the guy from Texas I met in the morning.  He changed his cloths so I didn't recognize him.

The next day, my husband came with me, I instantly found inspiration with all the workers working on a project to rebuild a house after the superstorm. Laurie told us about many projects were going on in Capitola to rebuild. 


Because the people and machine were moving around, I spent almost two hours barely to get what I wanted.  Then working in colors was even more difficult.  I thought I should just stop there, like many rebuild project going on, no need to be finished...


Later I went to paint the bridge, and decided to put a figure in my painting.  Saw many other artists doing beautiful paintings.  Can't wait for the exhibition day to see them all.


Super tired, my husband drove to save my energy.  Nice to have support from our little family here.

The following day I painted at the English Ale and the Frog Guide at the Shadowbrook.  Then framed and came up with titles for my paintings.



Our "Quick Draw" day on Saturday.  Checked in and I painted in front of Beach,  Three other artists in my view painted on the beach.  


I found out that I brought only one piece of watercolor paper, and it was not my regularly Fabriano Artistico paper, instead of a sample paper of Strathmore.  


Just as I expected that the paper was not good quality, but I survived through the long day.


Sunday was our exhibition day, early morning arrived at the Community Center on Jade St.  Got my Goody bag and other generous art supply samples from Mark the owner and a supporter of this event from Palace of Art and Office Supply store.



Felt grateful I got to participate this year!  Nice to see several of my friends who came by and talked to me.  Appreciated many people voted my paintings as well.  Wonderful opportunity to learn from other artists' award pieces too.  Not many sales this year, but most of local people were very supportive.  What a fantastic event Laurie organized again.


(November 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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Live study of a young model in a red dress

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Portrait and figurative studies of a model

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