Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Our first time to paint this new model Melisa today. I started with a used 12"x16" canvas.  One artist friend mentioned to me that she would be confused working on uncovered used canvas.  I felt OK, and tried to paint with new style after not working at the studio about two weeks. My speed and correction were not as good as two weeks ago.  The painting wasn't near finished after 3-hour-session.  (May 10 2022)  Spent two or three hours or more fixing this portrait.  Tried to work like expressionist with black outlines, sometimes using a palette knife.  Hard to paint with consistency, in the studio and at home.  I had to stop before I changed too much from my original idea.  That was challenging working at home without a model, I decided to leave the arm area the way it was, lucky it was used canvas, the colors  matched well...

From May 18 to 20, plein air on the California Coast along Cabrillo Hway #1.  The first day was beautiful, we drove to Point Lobos State Natural reserve about 10 am.  There was not a parking spot left, so we couldn't get in.  Instead we painted along the Cabrillo Hway #1.  Nice view but it was noisy.  Afternoon, painted on the hill, I found a further view of a house on the rock through the "window" of a big tree. We learned our lesson, drove into the park earlier the next morning.  Felt ambitious and brought our gear and set up near the Bird Island Trail near China Cove.  It was beautiful but too windy, had to pack the gear up, and felt "defeated in battle".  A photography couple we met on the trail told us that they could not get into the park yesterday too.  So they came in earlier this morning just like us. Then we painted at the bottom of China Cove because it was less windy, at the most popular Sand Hill Cove parking lot, overlooked the lonely tree on top o

I was away for eight nights in May, missed several portraiture practice sessions in the studio. We were quite lucky to have Leigh back for our afternoon long post and evening short pose model. She dressed up in an evening gown with matching jewelry for the long pose - turquoise, my favorite color. And her hair was "twisted" up. It was a crowded in the studio, I painted behind two other artists, there was only a small area I could peek through to see the model. I complained a couple of times, just because those two artists moved a little bit and blocked my view. After our afternoon session was done, I realized that the colors I used were too saturated. And several artists stayed for the evening session. We brought our dinner boxes for a simple meal. There was full house in the evening session too, her ballerina posses were lovely. And she looked tired. Enjoyed painting and drawing her.  (May 24 2022)

I canceled my dental appointment, and drove 40 miles to paint with my Chinese artist friends.  Several of them are professionally trained fine art teachers, who used to teach fine art at universities in China. Early morning I drove to the Park St bridge location and painted there.  It was my first time painting at the location.  Several other artists came.  They checked out two different locations before painting.  I realized the scene was a little complicated, so I tried to simplify it. Lan, one of female artist that lives in Alameda, she prepared a delicious lunch for us, some of us contributed some food as well.  I didn't know that there was a critique time.  My watercolor painting was next to the other artists, especially the master painters.  They were all very nice give me enough encouragement and professional advice. After lunch at Lan house on the Bay Farm Island, some of us decided to paint nearby.  But we were invited to visit Nancy's studio after four.  Less than two

Seems that working in the studio and Plein Air outdoors are quite different in many ways. Went to Carmel Plein Air painting with my friends for four days, missed the last session for short-pose live model drawing. So I found that I had difficult time to draw. No matter two minutes, five minutes or ten minutes, I could not draw fast and correctly enough, didn't have time to draw a leg or arm. This model was good, he worked very hard, I saw his body shaking during the pose. Of course we all pay good tips to our models. (May 10 2022)

Four-day-trip, it wasn't long, especially when we painted at the one of most beautiful places, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Three artist friends together, we made progress from May 3 to May 6. It was a nice and clear afternoon when we checked in Hyatt Carmel Highlands - Hyatt Inn.  There was an amazing sunset view overlooking Big Sur Coast from our room every dawn.  Bought enough food from Safe Way.  We cooked and ate branches, and late dinners, went out painting about six hours each day.     Weather was unpredictable, it changes dramatically all the time, from warm sunny to windy foggy in one hour.   First day wasn't easy, didn't know how to handle the fast changes.  Then started to learn and improved...  I did two watercolor paintings, one sketch on the first day. After dinner, one of the artists suggested painted another still life after I arranged our food on the table. Next day, we painted at Garrapata State Park. The rest of time we stayed at Point Lobos and we