Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

We had a young girl sitter today who was wearing a red dress. She sat on a piece of greenish color cloth. I liked it, because I finally got to use some "left over" colors, expecially Veridian Green which I had a huge tube of for over twenty years and had only used a tiny squeeze of. Started sketching on a 16"x20" used panel, I painted in a more comtemporary color scheme by using Cadmium Red and Veridian Green together as complementary colors. I painted her full figure, just because I liked her black shoes. During each break, she studied with a pack of flash cards cards in her hands, seemed like she was in school and preparing exams. Three-hour sessions are never enough time for a portrait, so I went home to correct and add a few more details after. Happy with the result. (March 5 2024)

It was a rainy Saturday this Easter weekend.  I went to an evening live model session at Lynn's studio by chance that I found through Instagram, also it was very close where I live.   About 10 artists showed up, and one came all the way from Oakland on such a rainy weekend.  Painting and photography are unique arts. As we see in the work of old masters, great painting captures instead the outward molding of inner feeling that is truer to the individual than any momentary expression.  Because artist adds emotion into the painting it is unique to the individual.  Different color palettes, brushstrocks, or different perpectives to catch the likelness of the model.   Painting a model in realistic style isn't as important to me as capturing the essence of the model's expression.  I don't use a reference photo to copy a model, instead I use my eye and my hands to capture the expression from life, practise during the precious moments of the painting session. Of course, I use r

I thought I would paint a head portrait, but instead did a figurative study again on a used 16"x20" panel. Had to work on his legs more. Continued using my leftover Veridian Green.  Anyway the lighting system in the studio was cooler.   He was a very professional model, and we had him again for our evening short pose three-hour session.  He read a book instead of using his smart phone during each break, seems usual these days.   Pages of drawings I did,  and I was tired after two sessions total of six hours painting and drawing the same model. I was wondering if our sitter was exhausted too.  (March 19 2024)

A good model can inspire an artist to be creative and productive. Studying from a live model is always challenging. We were lucky to have very profession model Zoe being our sitter for two sections. The first week I did a full body study. Though I went to the studio half an hour early, most of the good seats were already taken. I grabbed the last middle one, so painted Zoe straight on. A week later, I brought my first figurative study back and correct a little bit. Then I worked on a 12"x16" portrait. Both sections I used pallet knives mostly and painted on used canvases.  The figurative one is 16"x20".  Nice of her that she posed herself next to our paintings in the end. Went back home and worked for hours correcting as the limited time wasn't allow me to do the details. For instance, her eyes looked more like she was meditating. And I added to my own interpretation into the portrait. Short pose drawing in the evening, Short pose drawings from our favorite ball

Sun came out after weeks of rain.  I went to one of my favorite spots to Plein Air, Chris' Farm in Campbell.  Painted at the same location several times already, but I went there in the afternoon today.   There were many interesting subjects there, and also it was not far from where I lived.  The antique van and an old delivery truck were facing different directions.  Quickly I had my drawing down and started to laying down some colors.   Might be it was because it was afternoon, but it was not as quiet as it was used to be there. Cars driving and parking, people passing by or bicycling... Nice to hear several compliments.  Sun went down fast and the temperature got colder.  It was the time to leave, and I did enjoy being outdoors again working. (February 22 2024)

It was not a warm morning, but the rain finally stopped. My husband drove me to the location, then he visited a friend who lived nearby. My first time coming here to paint.  Peaceful morning with the other artists, only could hear birds singing.  It is still our winter time in 50's and partly cloudy, I did several sketches.  Tried a German made fountain pen lent to me from another artist.  It was really a nice one, I might buy one. Sun came out later and brought the temperature up a little bit, then I did a quick watercolor sketch. Saw our friend and had nice chat with her, she introduced us to another park nearby. I would try to paint next time. (February 12 2024)

Thought to do something different, Apple Park was a good place for sketching and not far from where I live. and some of our local artists were meeting up there today.  Sun came out this morning after weeks of rain. I was not well prepared for it. Found my pencils, sketch book, eraser and outdoor chair in a rush. Felt I should have more hands to carry each of them, why didn't I grab a bag and have everything in it? Warm in the sun, but not in the shade. There were many young olive trees, I guessed that they were the same age as the Apple Headquarters. Tried one sketch that had architecture, and one very stylish artist I drew her into my work. Then I started to draw other artists. Walked through the Apple park's "mirage" sculpture takes shape as iridescent glass pillars winding through trees. Chatted with several artists to catchup, left after in the afternoon. (January 25 2024)

It was not a warm morning at the location. I got to one of my favorite painting spots and decided to paint again at this location. Couldn't remember how many times I've painted there before. Still, I started with a thumbnail, almost the same layout from my memory as before. I tried to use less water as it was hard to dry given the weather. One lady walked by me to complement my work, but she she surprised me and immediately apologized and told me that she was just walking by. Later some male voice was even louder behind me saying that it was a beautiful painting. That really scarred me a lot. Turned around and I saw two policemen driving by, they were kind and smiled, apologized as well. Then asked me when I started my work. I didn't really pay much attention, told them around nine o'clock. After they left, I realized that it might not have told them the correct time, they might misunderstand me and think I was not honest enough, oh, no.... Saw several other artis

I went back to the studio working on live model study again after a long break. It felt challenging, especially the short poses. I couldn't finish one nude whole body sketch in two minutes. It was OK for the five-minute poses. The three-hour long pose wasn't enough time for figuring out the whole body structure. There was a very nice younger Korean female artist there that helped me a little bit during the break. Then I was able to push my work further. Added more hours at home painting till it looked fine basically. I don't think I should add too much time working on it, otherwise I won't able to paint my own work. (January 9 2024)

Raining season finally has come.  It was the challenging part of Plein Air. Rained over night, a little unpredictable during daytime, not easy for painting outdoors. My husband pointed out the unique clouds outside our home window this morning. Fall colors were still there, also there were cooler colors in the distance with the fogginess. Wonderful for a watercolor work I thought. I brought my Plein Air painting pack upstairs, and started an "indoor" plein air landscape painting. Actually, I've wanted to paint the view outside our front of the window for over a decade of living at here, especially during the winter, when the scenery looks more beautiful after most of the leaves have fallen. There was an orange tree in the neighbor's backyard. I changed it to a pine tree, to carry some spirit of the coming holidays since there is no snow in our location. I enjoyed painting inside, didn't have to suffer from the cold or hot. windy or sunburn weather... but it

Good news to share for the coming up holidays, my figurative oil painting "Diary of Venus" won the 1st place in oil, juried by Pancho Jimenez at Great Bay Area Open (GBAO) "Potentiality/Actuality" biennial exhibition in the NUMU museum Los Gatos. There are many great works created by Bay Area based artists and the exhibition is open to the public at NUMU museum in Los Gatos until March 9 2024. I took a break from painting outdoors after Capitola Plein Air event. Of course I still paint at my home studio. Gorgeous day here in winter, it looked like fall. Though it was only 59 degrees, I felt warm in the sun. All foliage showing autumn leaf colors like yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown, which contrasted the blue sky and other plants of green were everywhere. It was great to go out and paint a day before the rainy season starts. Drove to Sunnyvale and the Heritage Park Orchard jumped into my mind. I think it is always inspiring when I drive on streets named af

My third time coming to paint this Gothic Revival style church.  Once I painted it in the late afternoon.  Today I painted in the morning. There was a red SUV parked in front, but I had no idea when it had been switched to a white one. It was not a quite an intersection, cars and people were passing by, some of them on the bikes or other kinds of transports. I noticed that there was guy cleaning the front of the church, so I painted him into my work. (October 16 2023)

Planned to Plein Air in the morning, but there were some household things that interrupted that plan . It was about 4pm when I set up to paint at the Downtown Campbell Light Rail Station,  I've painted near this Light Rail Station several times over the past two years and have found it a very interesting place to paint from different angles in the morning or in the afternoon. For example just this red warehouse I painted from the other side in the morning on the last day of 2021.  This building had a "for sale" sign on it.  Today the sale sign still was on the fence, but the messiness I saw around before was all cleaned up.  It is unusual that a property could be on sale for so long in Silicon Valley. Many times I've told myself that I should not copy what I see exactly, so  today I slightly moved things around or implied things a little bit.  Slowly but surely I will get there for sure one day. There was a condominium behind where I was painting.  The residents had a

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 did

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. (

I thought I wanted to paint the church. Then I changed my mind after I saw the light and shadows on this building were so interesting. Found a shady spot under a tree off the street, set up my workstation, and spent a little bit more time sketching out the details. Wish I was an architect, could get all the perspective correct in the first pass but it took a little longer. A college boy walking by said "good morning" and startled me because I was so focused on my work. He was very polite though and apologized. Later when I was almost done the painting, a lady passing by and said "so beautiful" and scared me again. I guess I haven't been out in the public painting enough lately. She apologized too, and I told her no need to worry and we chatted a bit. She had an Australian Shepherd dog with the most beautiful eyes. She told me that her dog was super-smart and sweet. It was a nice day to enjoy the breeze and get out into the fall air. (September 27 2023)

My first time painting at this location.  A hot day, arrived a little early, but I realized that there wasn't any easy subject for me to paint. Did not want to waste the trip, so I dragged my painting gear and walked a while, then decided to paint from this angle.  Not enough variety of features to make the scene exciting but at least there were some white birds on the water. It was quite a annoying with so many bees buzzing around me.  I checked and cleaned up my paints in case they were attracting them.   After my painting was done and returned home, I started to wash my painting cloths.  Hopefully there won't be anything to attract insects next time. (August 28 2023)

I have been there a couple times before, but it was my first time painting at the location.  A gray day, drove on the winding highway 17 for about an hour, met up with several other artists at the parking lot of Natural Bridge State Beach. We found our own spots and started painting.  The spot I got was under eucalyptus tree branch, but at a higher level so I was able to see the Natural Bridge better. I asked a lady who carried a bucket, thought she was a fisherman.  But she told me that she picked up garbage on the beach as volunteer before her work.  So I drew her into my painting.  Later I saw another lady doing the same thing.  How wonderful! I removed my paints with honey medium already, as I'm not sure which paint attract honey bees. But I still got many bee visitors while I was painting. And a spider visitor too. Unfortunately, one of the artist got stung by a "yellow jacket". Seemed she was OK, moved to a new spot and painted another painting. I saw a eucalyptu