Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

I don't even remember when was my last visit to the beautiful Hakone Estate and Garden. Especially on a lovely spring day to see all the gorgeous plants blooming. Actually it was quite hot in the sun, 74 degrees, I was fully covered and tried not get pollen attacks, but it was not possible. Used my brush and color palette, to express my feelings about the moment using an impressionist style onto the paper. Keep practicing both my visual language and my 2nd language. I painted myself into this painting. Can you find the figure?

I had this opportunity to create a booklet by using mixed media for a Japanese Twin Sister's story. This was the design for the cover and the intruction page. The story is about Japanese twin sisters who were separated since they were born, one lived in the east and other one lived in the west. Finally, they found each other after 20 years, but their destiny could not make their joyful reunion easy, or stay for long... Additional changes were required for adding the cherry blossom to the design. It was just the right timing as they were blooming in our location in April. So, I took a perfect "Twin blossom" and added to it.  Cherry trees and their blossoms in Japan go by the name of sakura and carry a great cultural meaning and significance for the people of Japan. The word sakura would translate as the Japanese flowering cherry tree in English whereas the blossoms are referred to as cherry blossoms. Originally, the purpose of hanami excursions was to ponder the tra