Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Not sure why I could not get myself motivated, the laziness was all over my mind and body. Some of my works are half way done, I keep reminding myself that I should fix or finish them... Day by day I sink into the sofa, barely move around, and found all kinds of excuses for myself to do nothing. Till I noticed that I had gained a couple pounds again. It makes a big difference for me - each time I gain weight, I loose motivation. After Memorial Day, I started doing exercise again, dragged myself to the art center studio and took the second long pose session of the same live model to finish this portraiture. And I continued on to the evening short pose session. Found my arm even hard to reach where I wanted to draw. Unbelievable that only few ponds could cause so much unwillingness all over me. But glad I did it! (May 31 2022)

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...

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)

One 3-hour session portrait study in oil. Our new model was Polish , She told us that she looked like her Russian grandmother. Working on a used 12"x16" panel. The 1st picture was taken outdoors. I continued to use duotone for the portrait, and my first time to feel happy for the result surprisingly. (April 12 2022)

We had this new model I missed the first session, had to catch up to paint this portrait in three hours. She sat stable, had a little Mona Lisa smile kind of expression on her face. Continued to painting in duotone, might touch up later. (March 22 2022)

It is the first day of our Chinese New Year.  After my hesitation as to whether I should go painting, I finally decided to follow my passion and go paint.  Though in our culture we celebrate new year for 15 days usually, lifestyle has to be adapted to living in a different culture.  Our model was a very tall and beautiful professional African American model, she was from a very artsy San Jose family.  She sat very still and had kept her facial expression too.  I'm still trying to work on my duotone style in oil, struggling through for 3 hours.  Our model liked the result, it made me happy. (February 1 2022)

A gorgeous day, went to Shoreline Park to meet other watercolor artists and paint together. Arrived at the Rengstorff House, there was a graduation party going on. Found a shady spot, set up my work station, then I found out that I didn't bring any watercolor paper. Haha, I was wondering why my gear bag was a slightly lighter in weight this morning.  So, I only completed my sketch.   Came back home and decided to organize my art supplies a little bit, those always occupy so much space.  I needed to find out if I have to buy more materials for Alameda Paintout Event coming up in August.  I would have plenty of  time to order online learning from my previous lessons.  Surprised to see a couple of my very old sketches.  They brought back memories, some of them were the doodles of my commissioned works. One of those I wrote down in "7 2006".  It was hard to believe about fifteen years already.  I still had my job working back then....

Happy Mother's Day! Especially for those loving and caring for others unconditionally! Went to paint at the Japan town a little late this morning, just wanted to be close to a temple or a church for saying a prayer for my ancestors, especially for my two grandmothers and my father, since I couldn't visit their graveyard for the tomb sweeping day in China. Found a shady spot across the street, started to paint and think... Because of the COVID-19, I haven't see my old mother for two years now. Mother's Day is coming, even though I have my vaccination done, I still am not allowed to go to see her in China. Then I started felt quite sad about my situation... A guy came by and told me that he saw me crossing the street this morning and wondering what I was doing. Seemed like people were quite alert regarding their neighborhood. Saw two red-vested people walk by, looked like they were helping older people walk around. Before I finished my work, one of ladies wearing a red ve...