Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Palo Alto Baylands Nature preserve is one of those places that has been inspiring most California Plein Air painters for years. I went to paint several times, hadn't found a better way to express it then through watercolor media yet. It was a little cooler today, grey with dramatic clouds in the sky at the location. Felt a little lost with my new color palette, could not follow my usual watercolor's flow to loosen up. And Alizarin Crimson made a small mess, not sure why it was so liquid?  Anyway, I painted a scene  moving objects around a bit, and I wish I would be inspired by this place to return and paint again someday soon.  Good day for practicing.

Close-up sketching is not as easy as I thought, though I had a little bit longer time for working on details.  Actually it was quite challenging!  Not sure how did we start talking about ear-rings. But our Zoom meeting host Doug is a very nice guy.  He really has great people skills on line to make each meeting interesting and encouraging each other sharing our life stories, and we all have fun.  Another wonderful practice morning!  (July 12 2021)

Planned to paint at Alviso. Suddenly I saw this park while driving to the location, so I made a u-turn and instead painted at this historic park. It was a hot day, so I painted in the shade under a big tree. There are many big trees in the park. I have been noticing that there is no way to run out of painting ideas, just so many subjects and I could barely get enough time to practice them all. Of course, to just keep doing it is most important. The power of an artist is that you can see things from a different perspective, create something new or unusual, or even move things around those are impossible to move to a different locations in the painting. I often "move" mountains, the ocean, or buildings, trees, etc,... Today I "moved" trees in a little different location for my composition layout and even brought a dead palm tree back to life. Came home and searched for but couldn't find any history about this park. Wonder why it is called "historic...

Went to the Sunnyvale Heritage Park orchard, it is always fun to drive through the local streets, those are named with some of the greatest visual artists and musicians in  history. Robbia, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Sargent, Romberg; Mozart, Choppin, Puccini, Offenbach, etc.. What a great way to be inspired and review history. Two years ago I painted here, while the workers were drying apricots. It looked like they were working on the apricots today. And I found out the barn was more appealing today after reading the sign on the wall: " The Bianchi Bros. barn was constructed circa 1918 on Capitol Ave and Hostetter Road in San Jose and has been in continuous use since that time. It is a good example of the classic American barn with its unpretentious vernacular architecture. Barns are one of a rare handful of symbols that immediately evoke our national heritage and their honesty provides a strong regional identity to our agricultural p...

I did a small sketch  back to a couple of weeks ago when I was at the same location, but didn't bring any watercolor paper. Went back to practice painting this old Victorian style house, the Rengstorff House which was one of the first houses to be built in Mountain View, California in 1867. Spent a lot of time working on the drawing, ended up to find out that I really didn't have to draw all the details on 14"x11" size paper for Plein air painting. But it was good exercise anyway by using very limited colors, besides it was a lovely day being outdoors.  (July 6 2021)

  I was a little bit late this morning. Yesterday was Independence day, the 4th of July. I probably missed some fun stories from concentrating, but always happy to listen and sketch with them. Maybe I could draw better if I focus more. Really I should start to prepare for the Paintout in Alameda that starts early next month. Feels more like I need a vacation somehow... (July 5 2021)

I was a little bit behind schedule, arrived the location about 10:40 AM. This was a place I wanted to painted for a long time. It was closed to the public since the pandemic. Happy to see the gate was open, but I decided to paint the front gate. The neighborhood was quiet in the morning. I was standing in the walkway in front of the house under a tree. The lady lived in the house was nice, she was busy in and out. First drove her car back with groceries. I guessed another women was her daughter and grand daughter. Then put her helmet on and went bicycling nearby. Later, she and a guy went for a walk. They both were not young, how could she have so much energy? Each time she was checking out my painting. The bell rang many times, the sound brought my feeling back to the old days. I painted until a guy came out to close the gate, and the road started to get busier. Before finished up, the nearby restaurant owner came by to introduce himself and see my work. He told me tha...

Hard to believe that a half year has gone by. Where did all the time go? Checked the weather this morning, it was not too windy during my outdoor painting time. Went to the location and found out that I didn't bring my tripod. Drove around, and there were so many new painting ideas. Instead of being mad at myself, I guessed that I had to accept my aging process, or blamed all the pollen that has been beating me down for months... This pile of red dirt caught my eye, it reminded me of the Grand Canyon, which I haven't been to yet. There was only a very limited area to park my car and I had to set up my station on the trunk.  Not an ideal spot as I had to keep leaning over to peer through a spot in the wired fence that wasn't blocked by bushes or and other materials. Well, I thought it was a good practice anyway. The light shone on my paper with all the branches shadows which was really confusing for my eye and brain. Started with my little sketch, ended up an unusual ...