Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

“What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”   ― Karl Lagerfeld As much as I enjoy painting, photography is one of my favorite things to do.  Not because I have to collect enough images for my original art, also I think digital media gives us more creative space, with such a wide range of tools available for self-expression, we should update our skills, and be creative as much as possible.  So get your camera ready. During shopping time, I carry my camera sometimes too.  I asked this young lady if I could capture a photo of this cute puppy Chihuahua in her hand, of course she was happy and I was able to keep this lovely photo. (Please click the image to enlarge) I was looking for a laundromat when I traveled in Mexico.  These two dogs suddenly were running in front me.  I captured their adventure by holding my camera with one hand, the other hand was still carrying my dirty laundry... (Please click the ima

Nature is really full of mysteries. After finding the first abandoned nest, I thought that the mother hummingbird was inexperienced. But who knew this tiny bird could be so smart, to raise babies as a single mother, she started building a second nest nearby. I had no idea how or if this mother hummingbird moved her two coffee bean size eggs to that second home, after she experienced that the first location did not work out for them. I missed the beginning of the eggs being hatched. But now, I could see baby hummingbirds only slept and ate, and grow fast each day. One baby was bigger than the other one, I think it is a male from the eye expression. The other one looked like a girl. The mother hummingbird always fed him first. They had their own priority I believe. The half walnut size nest was getting so crowded, sometimes the two babies laid on top each other. Taking care of two babies as a single mother was not an easy job, I could see the mother hummingbird was getting sli

We moved into our new house in August of 2008. These two plum trees grew so fast I had to ask the gardener to trim them twice a year. I didn't ask for trimming the trees because of the hummingbird this spring, They grew a little wild, and the branches started to reach our house, they made some scraping noises on windy days. So, I reminded the gardener to do his duty for us, since our hummingbird never came back to the nest. Our gardener did a very good job trimming the two trees. These two trees could get most of their sunlight around noon. I still saw a hummingbird came back to the tree area. Some day in middle of May, I was in our garden and saw a hummingbird landed on the second tree (not the tree where I originally spotted the nest). I saw in silhouette what seemed like the mother feeding babies. My heart started pounding, and I ran as fast as I could to our upstairs where one our windows faced the tree. Amazingly, I discovered that there were two big and fat hu

Middle of March, 2012 I am not sure if I believe in a sixth sense or not. At the beginning of this year, I changed a couple of decorations into bird designs, like large candle holder, our table cloth, dish matte, containers, etc. I hadn't borrowed DVDs from our local library for a quite long time. But one day, I grabbed a DVD without reading the details, it was Don Carroll and Noriko Carroll's movie "First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story".  I watched the whole story at home, and gained some basic knowledge about the bird. There are two plum trees in between our house and our neighbor's. They bloom with gorgeous pink flowers every February, then new leaves cover the entire trees quickly. During the middle of March, after these two trees were full of leaves, I saw a humming bird hanging around the right side tree from one of our windows, and I was surprised to realize that she was building a nest . She flew in and out countless times during the day

Like most artists, I love painting animals too:-)! No matter if they are pets or animals in nature, they all have their own expressions. Before I start to paint or draw on canvas or paper, I usually study how to capture individual or groups of any kind of living creatures. Doesn't matter in my vibrant color palette or in a duo-tone drawing or if it is in a more realistic style to more abstract. The composition is always my first priority, and then the movement, and then the expression. What I believe is always to pay more attention to everything surrounding daily life, how the animals live, where, and what they do etc.. It helps me to find more subjects to paint. Actually, I never run out of ideas to paint. And day by day, I can add up more experience, when I am ready to paint the subject, even if I don't have enough study materials, there is a lot of information in my mind already. So, I can just follow my my feeling to create them on canvas and bring them to life. Th

Not sure who said, “Dreams are like the paints of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing, is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality.” "Dreaming Girls" is a very special painting to us. I created it in 2007 from one of the 10 photos my husband took during his business trip in Brasil. Also, I was called a "Dreamer" by my girl friends since I was very young. I did enjoy dreaming all the possibilities I could have after I grew up. Though life has taught me to be more grounded since I left my home country, but dreaming helps me overcome many kinds of tough situations, and makes me believe tomorrow is going to be better! So I decided to paint it as a square canvas positioned diagonally to effect a diamond shape to remember who I was back then. In 2009, I had a solo opportunity to display my paintings in a very famous multi-national company in Silicon Valley where I live since 2000. There