Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

We moved into our new house in August of 2008. These two plum trees grew so fast I had to ask the gardener to trim them twice a year. I didn't ask for trimming the trees because of the hummingbird this spring, They grew a little wild, and the branches started to reach our house, they made some scraping noises on windy days. So, I reminded the gardener to do his duty for us, since our hummingbird never came back to the nest. Our gardener did a very good job trimming the two trees. These two trees could get most of their sunlight around noon. I still saw a hummingbird came back to the tree area. Some day in middle of May, I was in our garden and saw a hummingbird landed on the second tree (not the tree where I originally spotted the nest). I saw in silhouette what seemed like the mother feeding babies. My heart started pounding, and I ran as fast as I could to our upstairs where one our windows faced the tree. Amazingly, I discovered that there were two big and fat hu

Middle of March, 2012 I am not sure if I believe in a sixth sense or not. At the beginning of this year, I changed a couple of decorations into bird designs, like large candle holder, our table cloth, dish matte, containers, etc. I hadn't borrowed DVDs from our local library for a quite long time. But one day, I grabbed a DVD without reading the details, it was Don Carroll and Noriko Carroll's movie "First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story".  I watched the whole story at home, and gained some basic knowledge about the bird. There are two plum trees in between our house and our neighbor's. They bloom with gorgeous pink flowers every February, then new leaves cover the entire trees quickly. During the middle of March, after these two trees were full of leaves, I saw a humming bird hanging around the right side tree from one of our windows, and I was surprised to realize that she was building a nest . She flew in and out countless times during the day

This was the boy I captured and planned to paint in 2009 during my first visit to Argentina without speaking a single Spanish word. After landing in the beautiful old colonial architecture city, which has a natural scenery of the valleys westward - Salta located in northwestern Argentina, we were exhausted and starving, could not wait for most of the restaurants opened at 7PM. When travelling, we love to follow local people to try their really traditional food. Walking around the city, we found this small Empanadas Restaurant was full of local people in the very center of the downtown. Quickly we decided to give a try. We just learned how to order water, hadn't had learnt to count in Spanish yet. Most of families were sitting together eating there on this late of a Saturday afternoon. A young boy - about eight or nine years old immediately ran in front of us to take our order after we just sat down. I pointed at the other table's food, and showed my fingers one by one. We

Being an artist, I can visually create an image in my minds eye. Here is the example of a small painting project.  I did 2 paintings, one is the hallway before, and another one is the hallway after an imaginary makeover. An inherited house from grandpa, a couple didn't want to give up anything from the past with those beautiful memories of their grandpa. But they felt depressed living in the house. The 2nd painting was a suggestion to relocated some of the old furniture and repaint the interior. They took my advice and did a minimal renovation for their hallway as the first step. And now, they are happily living there with their beloved dog, the Hallway Before is handing in their hallway now:-)! Please click the 1st image for viewing other artists' comments under the painting, or view more paintings at: https://xueling-zou.pixels.com/featured/grandpas-hallway-after-xueling-zou.html ​Or join me at: FaceBook , Instagram , Twitter , Pinterest

This piece won the 1st place in the Contest - Shoes on May 18th, 2012.  This painting was inspired by "The Red Shoes", which was first introduced to me by my mother. To me The Red Shoes has become a symbol of a career woman who has devoted her life to her job, or made some sacrifice in life. I painted this piece with my love for my mother.  Slowly I understand her more and more day after day. Happy Mother's Day! Inside and out Mom and I are so different, only one thing I have in common with her - a fast walk. She is outgoing, can make friends everywhere she goes through a very short conversation, rich or poor, old or young, higly educated person or without any education, even in different cultures, sometimes without language communication... She was beautiful and talented in theater arts, dancing, singing and acting. She was chosen to be an actress in a couple of movies when she was very young. Then she became a principal opera singer (western style) preformed o

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

Can you believe that my orchid (yellow cymbidium) finally is blooming now after TEN years of rest? What a "Sleeping Beauty"! (Click the image to view a better result). A good friend of mine - she is a plant expert gave this orchid to me (a plant lover) during the spring time when I just got settled here. It was in a one gallon container, and bloomed with gorgeous yellow flowers. I was so touched by her sincere friendship, at the same time I was overjoyed to watch the flowers whenever I had a little time.  She also taught me how to treat this type of orchid, what kind of fertilizers used during which season, how often to water it with a treated water (temperature, no chlorine, etc.). I did take very good care of my orchid like a super princess. Left it and moved it around in a perfect spot, no direct sunlit, only the morning sun or later afternoon ones. No matter how busy I was, I'd rather have missed my breakfasts hundred times, but the first thing I spritzed

Struggling through the whole weekend, finally I finished Petko's portrait based on the only one picture I have ever seen of his - his FAA avatar. I hope it could express my thanks to Petko who had made an eight minutes and fifteen seconds long animated slide show with a beautiful music of my oil paintings on Youtube. After I did a search, and I had found out that I was only the one of one hundred eighteen FAA members Petko made such a wonderful work for! Being an artist, I really admire his great work through his FAA online gallery! His painting style is bold and energetic, really represents his passion and devotion to art and to other artists. Now, I feel that I have discovered his incredible soul is much bigger than ordinary artists. I do need some more English language to help express my respect, my honor and my great thanks to him!! Please visit my online gallery at:  http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/   Here is the animated slide show Petko Pemaro made for my oil pa

I believe that communication is the main reason to prove that we are social animals, just like horses and dogs. I love to study the relationship between humans and animals, and create a painting on canvas to tell a story through my visual language, my imagination to my viewers. It is why I paint differently rather than just copy a photo. Also, it helps me to learn more and understand better living beings after each painting.  "A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words.  "  - Beryl Markham "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."  - Unknown "A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence."

Dog and horse are the natural animals to get along with humans! They can remember people even after long separations. They have their own emotional expressions. As a visual artist, I think it is very important to capture their emotion and personal expression, just like when I do the portraits for humans, it doesn't matter which style I use in painting, but the communication is the key for success in painting portraits, I believe! They are loyal, sweet, really your most trustworthy friends. They can understand words better than expected, according to the research, and possess "excellent memories" too! They never leave you, no matter if you are happy or upset, poor or rich, they are always next to you. Just thinking of them, thinking about their best qualities of their personalities, it makes me want to paint them. Hope my paintings can really bring each viewer that kind of happiness:-)! ​Or join me at: FaceBook , Instagram , Twitter , Pinterest