Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Painted at the same spot as I had last early spring. I moved the water tower to the right, and painted a a more open landscape by leaving out the old tree I included last year.  There were several parking spaces when I arrived.  I tried five times to park my car, almost every available spot. Finally I parked back into the first spot, just because I wanted to use my trunk door's shape to block the sunlight.  It was a nice day, not warm yet.  It was getting windy around noon, I knew it was the time to pack it up. (March 9 2022)

Planned to paint the cows I saw last week.  Drove all the way to the location, and disappointed to find them so far away from the road, hardly to be seen.  Learned my lesson, just paint the first sight that inspires me, don't hesitate next time. Nearby Palm Ave, I saw yellow mustard flowers blooming under the fruit trees at the orchard.  Charming and typical early spring landscape in California.  So I painted that but removed the barn from my work today.  Another day of practice! (February 23 2022  )

(Feb.18 2021) On the way to the location, I had to stop a couple of times to capture cows alongside the road. Saw the close relationship between cow mother and cow baby, I felt very bad about not being a vegetarian. Thought all the cows would be my subject, but I checked out the location and found several spots that inspired me to create my work. In the end, I painted the horse barn. A young mother took her son for a hike, she took several photos of me painting at the location and sent them to me. It was very nice of her. Got some feedback from another artist Jane, she shared some info about the certain watercolor mixes that could have a beautiful reaction, would love to learn more about it.... Not sure why the horses looked like donkeys. Maybe because one of my brother-in-laws he paints donkeys influences me, hahaha... Never mind, there were donkeys in that barn anyway. Got to love the weather, learned how to check the weather report carefully and dress in layers for Plein Air. It was...