Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Last week while painting at Sue's farm, the owner of Branscomb farms invited us to come paint. Last time I forgot to charge my car, but saw I had enough electricity and gas to cover the total mileage today. I followed Google maps this time to the address, because my car GPS didn't even show the address. After Cabrillo highway, I turned onto a street and got lost after over a mile up a dirt road. Finally Google told me to u-turn so I circled back and followed the new directions to a narrow private road where there wasn't anyone around and I arrived at a locked gate. A pickup truck suddenly pulled up from behind with a young guy and 2 dogs, he pointed me back down the dirt road again. I was worried to get a flat as we just changed to new tires so every mile counted... I thought I'd rather go paint boats at Johnson's Pier so headed out. On my way I saw a guy opening an unmarked gate and it turned out to be the farm. After over half an hour of goose chasing it was ...

I saw beautiful waterlilies near Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve during the weekend. Planned to paint there this morning. Thought how I should paint today, didn't pay too much attention and turned into the highway... I guessed that helped to change my mood. Even though the water lilies were so beautiful, I decided to paint the landscape, where I painted last November and saw a couple of coyotes on the hill. Lovely morning being outdoors and painting. After my work was done, went to visit all the gorgeous water lilies, most of them were blooming... Each media has its challenging part to deal with. Watercolor paper dries too fast in warm or hot days for sure, and it takes too long to dry in a wet or cold day. How to adjust the outdoor painting time during the different weather conditions takes life time to develop I believe, though I have been painting almost twenty years, only have four years experience being a Plein Air painter. But feeling lucky I can be in the nature often...

A couple of months practicing sketches at the Monday Zoom meeting. Now, I feel that I've gotten a bit better at managing time. At the beginning, I was always worried to draw people wearing glasses, because every second counted when sketching a portrait, put a glasses in the right position for each drawing took about a minute. Now the glasses don't take extra minutes to draw, they all have become part of the sketching process. And I feel happy to be participate, still learning how to concentrate on drawing with listening other people's chat though....

Time flies so fast, many factories in Silicon Valley have closed down and moved to overseas.  Now there are only a few left. They look more interesting to me since I started Plein Air painting outdoors,  I found one and painted it from the across street. I didn't realize that Lafayette St was quite busy, many cars, most of them trucks passing by. Happy to see everything is quickly recovering. Before I would not have smelled the strong pollution. But allergies have blocked my nose, so I couldn't smell anything. I took the fence out in front of the buildings (and the big street and box blocking the view), and moved a couple things around in my painting.  I thought the steam was cool coming out of the chimneys. Light was too straight to shine on the buildings, I think I will be back to paint at a different time next time. I remember that my husband picked me up at the SFO with a bunch of fresh red roses twenty years ago. On the drive back to the South bay, I saw several ...

(April 21 2021) Not like last week, only 50 degrees at the location. Very cold to paint watercolors, the paper refused to dry. And not to mention that I tried to painted too much detail for a Plein Air work. Really should simplify what was there. Maybe it would look better if only I did a greyscale. Good thing was I had no allergies to bother me today at Half Moon Bay.  Drove back, it was 70 degrees.

(April 19 2021) We decided to celebrate the Earth Day two day early today. But I was more interested in studying the  expression on all the faces. Several minutes were not long enough for capturing and drawing the uniqueness of these individuals, I tried. Happy to catch up with them each week, we talked about a lot of things, mainly focused on Earth Day.  I organized my paintings for the rest of day...

(April 16 2021) Nice and quiet morning at the location. I found a spot to set up, it was a little bit too close, but it was the angle I wanted. Didn't know it was one of the busiest days of the week again. More cars brought in more customers later to this beer garden. A young guy Kyle worked and guided all the cars for parking, he stood next to me most of the time. We had a little talk that he was in his freshman year in a college. Kyle was friendly and polite, kept telling me that my painting looked realistic to him, he even took a video to share with his friend. Finally he asked me how many years I had been painting, coincidentally his age was the same as my years painting, about nineteen years. Might be his and some people's encouragement all together, I thought I did better than usual. Definitely I will be back to paint again.

(April 14 2021) A gorgeous day at the location, even my allergies didn't bother me much. Got there and walked around, there was a red barn, a horse barn and horse trailers with horses in and out, chicken coop with roosters and hens, a mustard field and distant mountains. They were all nice subjects for painting, but I had to make a quick decision before the light changed too much, So I painted this red barn, and replaced the further broken fences in front. I probably could design a better composition that will work better... Next time, I will be back for sure.

  (April 13 2021) My allergies bother me, but, could not help myself, got ambitious to paint nearby flowers today. This is not my usual subject, I have to wait another year to paint if I miss it this year. There are several hundred year old wisteria vines in bloom on the arbor designed for the 1822 Mission at the east side of the courtyard at mission Santa Clara. Plus more than ten different kinds of other plants, most were blooming super beautiful this time. I found a corner spot in the morning, lighting was perfect. A couple of years ago I painted here in oils. I needed to test my new Fabriano Artisco watercolor paper. After my small sketch, I drew carefully on this newer version softer paper, didn't feel much difference. Then I was cautiously starting applying watercolors to it. Seemed like it doesn't allow me to make mistakes anymore. Might just be my "psychology issue". So far this new paper works fine for me... Hope it never cause trouble.

Got on Zoom for a minutes sketch - one of my favorite activities since COVID-19. Sketched in this small group of nice and friendly people, I enjoyed the conversations and had fun just being with them through Zoom. Though I have not improved to the level I want. Sometimes I might listen or chat too much and easily forget what I'm doing, and slow down my sketching speed. Really want to learn the new combinations - listen, chat and sketch all together at the same time, hahaha...

( Apr 9, 2021 ) In the morning I thought that I should go out to paint since my allergies didn't bother me too much. Arrived on location a little bit later than usual, instantly saw two people painting there, they were a mother painting watercolor and a teenage daughter painting in oil. I did one painting last November, and didn't like it. No hesitation, set up my station nearby the spot last year where I painted. I didn't realize that I was under a huge blooming tree, and at the entrance of the path from parking lot to main visiting area. More people were coming and leaving, mostly kids, I guessed they were on their spring breaks. A young girl about five years old stood next to me when my painting was half way done, she kept asking if I finished it or not... Then the leaves and flowers kept falling off the tree around me and my nose started running. Ignored it, I had my mask on. View my two paintings, not sure if I had made a little improvement yet? (November 12 , 2020 )  

Planned to go to Golden Gate Park to paint but it didn't happened. Drove in a different direction, tried to find an old place to Plein Air a couple of times, but I missed the road and had to u-turn back, I instantly stopped and painted this red barn. I was so glad that I found it by mistake, a very quiet road in this peaceful countryside, only the neighbors' dog barked several times at me. Saw a beautiful cow was having nap on the way back, but caught the road work traffic on the way home.

Joined a quick sketch in Zoom half way through. Wanted to get vaccinated, but could not find a vacant spot through the internet. Forgot about it, happy to draw out that frustration, happened that everyone had a hat on that day, interesting. Kept practice was more important!

It was a beautiful Easter Friday, I thought that I should paint something related to the Easter spirit. Suddenly I remembered that I wanted to painting this old historic building each time I passed by for many years.  Drove to the location, just couldn't find a good angle in front of the Adult School to set up.  Either it was in the drive way, too close to it.  There was a bus stop there, I saw the building angle I wanted to paint, but I had to see it through through a honey comb kind of block wall.  It was challenging, I had to walk a couple steps to see better because there was a young tree, a car and a trash can all in a row, not to mention the "bee hive" wall.  Well, it took me a little bit longer, but I did it on this lovely Easter Day.  (April 2 2021)

Another gorgeous day. I drove over 100 miles to paint boats. I had to take a thicker jacket off to change a thinner one at the location. Walked around and found these two white boats that were different than all the fishing boats. Also I could be in the shade of a big tree. Struggling through with composition, colors and value, then worked in details. About 80 degrees around noon, no wind. Would be back to paint for sure. Definitely there were more cars on the road. -- March 31 2021

Beautiful morning on location. Looked like everything was back to normal. Every time I feel lost to choose a boat to paint. Took a while to find one on the pier. Set up my painting station, but it was not early any longer. Felt hot in the sun, and used my Plein Air umbrella. People passing by complemented my work. Even a group of school boys kept saying "Bravo! "Thanks for all the encouragement. Suddenly it became very windy, first it blew my umbrella down, I screwed it down a couple of times. But I stood on the pier with nothing to block the strong wind. So I used my arm to hold my umbrella steady. Then the wind kept blowing little items off my painting station, like testing paper, small brush etc.. Almost finished my painting, I tried very hard to draw lines, but my station was shaking in the wind. Had to pack and leave. Finished the rest details at home.  --March 30

First time I came to this location to paint this weekend. My husband joined so he could hike. Happened to meet up with a weekend Plein Air group painting at the same place. Beautiful day, spring has finally arrived. Good thing that I finished a small sketch and the drawing before more people arrived. Didn't know how popular this place was! Even though we all still had masks on, it was very busy, seemed like no COVID-19 existed there. Saw a customer arriving on horseback, it really brought me back to over 160 year ago when the restaurant was just founded.  But only the person wore the modern cloths. And then a truck blocked my painting subject for quite a long time. Limited my color palette. Will surely come back again to paint, but not on a weekend.  -- March 27