Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

My 3d time painted at this location with an other local artist today. As usual did a small study first, took me much longer time to paint. After stepping back to view my work, I realized that there were not enough values in my work (The top one). Came home continued working on the painting (The bottom one), not sure if it has improved or not. Fall is coming, there were leaves and little branches falling on my painting and on me while I was painting today. Could see leaves started turning colors in distance. What a challenging year!

2nd time I've come to this location, last time probably half a year ago. Really wanted to paint different scenes than the previous visit. Ended up I painted the same barns, only about 25 to 30 degrees differently than last time. It was a little bit windy and felt chilly in the shade. I thought that the one white car could balance the layout, actually there was a parking lot next to the building. The landscape plants were higher than the parking lot, the figures I put into the work looked confusing, how do you think? Also, my painting needs more contrast. Shall I add more darkness?

Add caption Another interesting new place I went to paint that used to be a horse ranch owed by the McClellan family in the 1930s, and still preserves the original ranch house, a working milk barn, livestock barn, and a replica blacksmiths shop, along with a natural reserve in the middle of the park. So many new ideas for painting, could not manage all in one small outdoor work. My inspiration is from nature, painting outdoors helps me feeling meditative and alive, though I usually am exhausted after it all.