Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

To me painting still-life is difficult, I easily feel bored by staring at the same subject, prefer painting outdoors for sure. Some of my old still-lives mostly painted depending on half of my imagination. One day last month, just because I could not help myself and I picked up a wild pink lily flower (not sure the name) from the fields, put it into a cup I never used. Afternoon light made the flowers appear mysterious, I was wondering how I could express that feeling, especially because my favorite Plein air hat was next to it on the chair. Ended up I thought the shadow of the cup handle was more interesting to me - my focal point, hoped it worked out well. 🍳I had to move down to our kitchen/dining area to paint since the pandemic, because my studio is next to my husband's office and I was not used to his talking during the meetings at home all day long. Don't take it the wrong way, I think that my brain frozen when listening to all the words...Of course that was not my excus

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!

Say prayers for all the people impacted by the fires in California! Do you trust your own instant feelings? I do sometimes, but I do not always to follow them. Today I was hesitated if I should paint outdoors, because there were fires in Santa Cruz Mountains and our surroundings... Everything I needed was prepared in the car, I spent a lot of time trying to search the location on the car GPS, it didn't show. I had to give it up and used the Pillar Point Harbor direction after 15 minutes search. Often there isn't a T-mobile signal in that location. On the road, I kept thinking if I should just go the the Pillar Point Harbor, since I loved to paint the boats so much. At the last turn I changed line to the beach, further drove 14 miles. There were only a few people, and a black cormorant walking on the parking lot toward to the ocean. The beach was beautiful and the air was clean. I did a quick study sketch, more people arrived. I didn't feel that I wanted to paint, back to my

My last one on the last day of the Strada Easel 31 Day January painting challenge. Yes, I did paint every day, and finished 27( 8"x 6") Garden Still-life Series, plus 4 (11"x 14")landscapes. Not sure how do the other artists feel about it? But it was a great help to me as a self-taught artist, my first time to focusing on a series and painting from life each day, mostly outdoors. I could not imagine after leaving my painting comfort zone that I would draw or paint so many still-life during such a short time period, and it was a big challenge to me! So I think to keep learning, practicing, growing, creating and improving are the goals for my artwork.

Time management day. Didn't prepare to go out Plein Air. In the morning decided to see Sue Johnston's demo in Pleasanton. Thought it was a nice place to Plein Air. So started packing my outdoor painting stuff. There was only an hour before the demo after I arrived. Didn't have enough time to paint, so walked around in the Downtown Pleasanton, took photos for the future painting ideas. Went to the Demo, had learned some nice tips from Sue. She did a wonderful watercolor demo. It was lucky that the traffic was not bad on the way home. Jumped into my backyard, painted this succulent till it was getting dark. Didn't forget my frog, can you see he was smiling? But I was tired.

This is today's effort on my garden series. My first time using alcohol on my work, didn't show anything like the other artists'. How strange? Spring is really here, I couldn't stop sneezing while painting in the backyard. Unfortunately, that means my allergy season, which usually effects my body about half a year. I couldn't enjoy spring outdoors as much as most others; hiding indoors, shutting all the windows... I guess that it is the better time to me working in my studio now. But I didn't forget to express the spring feeling into my succulent painting.

I'd love to share my study with others, it is about an artist's journey of experimentation. I am not a a realistic painter, I love to express my own feeling into my work. That is why painting a photo is boring to me. Anyway, because I have joined the Strada January challenge, I paint every day. I know that it is the rainy season now, so my succulents are the series subject I choose to practice. I am struggling every day only drawing, and the colors are difficult to express. Each small work has taken me longer time to finish, and I've spent more time to study on my plants as well. I guess that is what making progress is all about. I've collected many succulents. Of those, only a few I can remember the names. Most of them are easy to take care of, though some of them have died, not sure if it was my fault, or because of the weather.

Lovely weather on Sunday, painted this cacti in my backyard. I think that it is called a cucumber succulent. Continuing painting one series is not very easy. But we all know that artists have to practice each day to become better ones. And since I want to get better, I have to find a my own way to get myself into one kind of subject study. Wish me luck please!

"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are." -- Unknown Saturday at Pacifica. Gorgeous sky and the ocean, painted near the Pier. Heard a familiar voice, surprised to see a couple of my long time no see friends. Their kids are off to college now so they have a little more time for themselves. The rest of the afternoon and evening we tried to catch up, and they took us to see the beautiful San Francisco night view on the top of twin peaks.

Today I continued painting the garden series worked on design. This succulent was blue color, it looked very interesting when the light and the shadows there. Of courses the light was gone after I had finished it.

What I like is the winter light that makes the shadows longer and bigger, gives a dramatic look. Sunny day, I still felt cold standing in the shade and painting outdoors. Today I painted this sick succulent in my backyard, which I had been watching for a while, not sure how long I could have it. I didn't want to paint the hanging chain in too much detail, the focal point was the plant. Good benefits of painting at home or nearby are don't need to waste time on the road and paint familiar things or environments.

Gorgeous sunny day, painted in the backyard. It was so cold, and I had to put more cloths on, changed to wear my warm boots too. What I worked on was the contrast between the light and shadows. Winter light is precious, it passes very quick. I found out that there were certain patterns of the succulent growing interestingly, and I had spent an hour working on... Realized that too much detail only made my small size painting looked messy after I did. So I had to erase most of them. Good exercise with a good lesson to me today.

Beautiful day, but only stayed at home cleaned up my studio spending most of the day today, before Lunar New Year. Just realized how much I had done. Now, I got an answer why I was always busy, and felt that there was not much room left too... lol. Before getting too dark, I did a quick watercolor sketch in the backyard.

Quite dramatic weather today, windy, raining, sunny, cloudy... I know that I can not paint well some days. This was one of those days, no matter how hard I tried, everything seemed not in a right direction. Well, hoping tomorrow is a better day!

Nice and warm day, really felt like spring. Saw this common plant which I don't know the name of next to a parking lot nearby. I was attracted by the light and shadows. Also there were many different colors I don't know how to describe it in written language, so I had to paint it using my visual language.

Not raining today. The sun even came out in the afternoon. I spent an hour to clean up the back yard since my back had improved a lot. I painted nearby in the neighborhood, used wet into wet technique. It felt warm and like spring coming. I expressed my feeling into today's exercise.

Recently I am focusing on my garden still life series, not only because it is the rainy season, also it is a good exercise to do so. Honestly, I won't paint still lives if I could go out to paint landscapes. The current situation happened to me for a good reason, I have found out that it was a challenging subject. I have kept doing it, just because I love my plants, watching them grow, and they are part of my life, right? And I remembered that my first drawing lesson  was outdoor drawing peonies in a park in downtown Beijing when I was about ten years old in primary school. There were so many people in the park enjoying the peonies, I had no clue what I was doing, my one to one "teacher" was watching me, my hand was shaking and sweaty, the drawing papers were all wet, many people passing by, most of them thought my drawing was terrible... My younger age confidence might have been damaged by that experience, and that could be one of the reasons I never was interested in

Living in California long enough, we all know how important rain is. Actually, I feel excited each time it rains. Continued painting my succulent in the garden during this rainy day. This is a type of aloe vera, maybe native in California. Moved my decorative mushroom nearby the plant to help the contrast on such a gray day. Challenging part of painting was the white dots on the leaves, first time I used the wax technique.

My back is getting a little bit better today. Continued painting my succulent in the garden. If I remember correctly, this type of the succulents is called "Ghost Plant". Though it was wet, but I enjoyed painting in the garden under the roof, listening to music, my plants and the frogs surrounding me. Challenging to paint in a raining day there was not enough light and contrast, everything looks gray.

I couldn't go too far to paint these days. First my driver's license expired, just received my renew one last Saturday. Then I hurt my back trying to clean up the garage yesterday morning. I didn't think it was serious, so won't bother to see a doctor. But it was swollen, not easy move around, sit down or get up, etc... Raining today, and it stopped for a while, the sun came out from the clouds. I am so glad that I have many plants to paint at home. I am not a realistic still life painter. Staring at my succulent, drawing stiffly, though I kept telling myself that they were only shapes. Later felt much more fun playing with colors. Painting really is my nature pain killer. Try it if you don't believe it.