Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Cleaned up my studio, found some old outdoor oil paintings I didn't like. Feels like my beginning Plein Air oil paintings look like antique works after I have sanded them down and e-framed them. Shall I keep them or paint them over again?

It is a good time for me to slow down a little bit. Cleaning up my studio, at the same time reorganizing my physical work area and myself mentally as well. I stacked my Plein Air watercolor works together (some of them were painted both sides) since I started my outdoor painting journey about two and a half years ago. These don't include about 100 oil outdoor paintings, a couple of sketch books with drawings, still-life, figure and portrait studies, some have been mated or framed or are exhibiting now, and some works sold...

Got to love it, there was no traffic driving from south bay to the city. A gorgeous day, no wind, my first time painting there with one of my photographer friends. But the Golden Gate Bridge was under maintenance... Such a beautiful spot, every angle I could paint. My friend took some photos while I was working and I didn't notice, after I found a bird flying over my head. She told me that she was waiting for that moment for a while. We had great time together. I must go back again.

As much as I wanted to continue practicing figure and portrait painting, I thought that I'd better avoid the chance to get inflected by the coronavirus. Of course, always happy to paint outdoors for sure. Monday I went to Foothills park, ran into two other Plein Air artists painting there. A group of Chinese women were having a picnic at the park, their food smell delicious, it made me hungry. So I had to drag my stuff a little bit further from them to concentrate on my painting...

At Santa Cruz Art League, I was surprised and humbled that one of my Plein Air paintings has received an Honorable mention award from Juror Warren Chang at 90th Annual Statewide California Landscapes Exhibition. There are many beautiful California landscape paintings to see, please go to enjoy it if you have time. It opens till April 12th 2020. I pulled out the pictures I took on the day I painted this one "Plein Air at Wildwood Park Saratoga CA". And it reminded me that I forgot to bring my clips, so I borrowed them from other artists at the location. Thanks for all the strength it brings us to work together with other artists! This is the link of the opening reception:  https://www.facebook.com/100002905923076/videos/pcb.2717108345062670/2717108258396012/?__cft__[0]=AZX7CkCloYc9Bkzp0uQzYFtSos1MvcoQrRjdl1t_JqIXx-0imb3T6RfknNWdcGMr3elCjBRtGX1wx5k1fw2Wy51wBEy501bEeLXs2ZAop_24Lb9xQb5rgu2-hH__S2llPr-b-8fJh4F3qMQK9XCp-QKV&__tn__=*bH-R

Came to one of my favorite places to paint in the afternoon. Just because I thought the subject I wanted to paint was more interesting in the afternoon light. But two main things I had forgotten, one was my paper towels, I only had two pieces super soft napkins handy. The other thing was heavy truck traffic around where I painted. It was a very noisy intersection, endless trucks passing by. Also it was windy, and I was facing the west direction, felt the sun always shone on my eyes. I guessed it was good for erasing the unnecessary details. A couple of passengers passing by, they were curious what I was doing. The result was good enough. And I had to run for the restroom, lol...because there wasn't public one nearby.

Portrait study has been one of my favorite practices in painting. Personally, I am interested in studying African American faces, and have taken many photos for my reference. Their face structure and color tones are very expressive. I just have started painting from life models, most of them are Caucasians so far. I have found their skin tone is more challenging to me to paint, also the colors we see and paint indoors under light are so much different the everything we see outdoors. Honestly, the one on the left was after my third major correction on the original painting based on a 3-hour session.

Add caption The model looked a very experienced one, confident and stayed still well. Found out she was a preforming artist, would act in "The Mystery of Edwin Rrood" from Feb.27 to Mar.15 at Lohman Theater. Brought a used canvas panel, red color treated background seemed to be perfect fit into painting her. Slowly learning time management on figure study, usually three-hour section. I was mostly happy for the result.