Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

I canceled my dental appointment, and drove 40 miles to paint with my Chinese artist friends.  Several of them are professionally trained fine art teachers, who used to teach fine art at universities in China. Early morning I drove to the Park St bridge location and painted there.  It was my first time painting at the location.  Several other artists came.  They checked out two different locations before painting.  I realized the scene was a little complicated, so I tried to simplify it. Lan, one of female artist that lives in Alameda, she prepared a delicious lunch for us, some of us contributed some food as well.  I didn't know that there was a critique time.  My watercolor painting was next to the other artists, especially the master painters.  They were all very nice give me enough encouragement and professional advice. After lunch at Lan house on the Bay Farm Island, some of us decided to paint nearby.  But we were invited to visit Nancy's studio after four.  Less than two

2020 Day31 Today is the last day of the Strada Easel 31-day challenge to paint from life. The day before I felt overwhelmed, so only did a watercolor still-life sketch as the last piece #31 of the challenge today. Forgive my daily post, hopefully not a bother for you. I tried to be polite and not post too often but in this case it was a daily requirement. Thank you so much for your feedback, comments, likes and shares. I appreciate your support and encouragement to help me make it through. It was a necessary experience, especially for me to make personal progress, not because being a full-time artist to create art, and think through which area I should focus on depending on my own interests. I think it is important being an artist to create art and also to inspire others or to be inspired. I will continue sharing some my work and stories behind my work, and practice in English my second language. Happy painting!

2020 Day27 I trimmed most of my plants before Chinese Lunar New Year, and had these trimmed branches in a glass jar of olives since then. Finally, I did a watercolor sketch before the flowers drooped. The Abutilon Flowering Maple Chinese Lantern Plant is one of my favorite plants. When we moved into this house eleven years ago, I did a little research before I started gardening. I focused on the plants that could live well in the shade and attract hummingbirds, also ones that bloom often annually . I discovered this Chinese lantern flower was the absolutely perfect plant, I love that the leaves look like maple leaves, the bell shape flowers look like Chinese Lanterns, and it can produce flowers almost year around. These plants really helped to attract hummingbirds who moved into my neighborhood, I watched hummingbird mother guard territory, built nest, raise and train her babies over the years, took countless footage of course. Now, my plant is at least three meters tall, it makes me

2020 Day24, Day25 and Day26 Too busy for celebrating Chinese New Year eve, ate too much food... Only did watercolor sketch...

What a busy long weekend! 2020 Day18 In Chinese tradition, each household starts major cleaning after Kitchen God day. Besides that we had an appointment at noon, morning and afternoon we cleaned our garage and backyard. I went to a local Chinese friend's solo exhibit opening at a gallery nearby later. In between all these things, I did a watercolor sketch. 2020 Day19 Only had a quick still-life watercolor sketch at home. Afternoon went to Michael Reardon's watercolor demonstration in San Jose. Later, joined a Chinese Year of the Rat group New Year Celebration exhibit in Sunnyvale. I had a three pieces showing at the Gallery. Friends and artists came and had fun at the opening... 2020 Day20 Just found out my name is not on the participating in the January STRADA 31-Day Challenge. Hopefully it would be corrected soon. This is my 2nd time joining the #stradaeasel January 31 days daily painting from life is challenging. I bought a Strada Easel two years ago when I

2020 Day17 The Kitchen God is the most important of many Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family. I am not sure that it is a religion or if it is just folklore. Our Chinese culture believes that on the twenty third day of the last lunar month, just before Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God(灶君) returns to Heaven to report all the activities of every household over the past year to Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor(玉皇大帝). The Jade Emperor, emperor of the heaven, who either rewards or punishes a family based on Kitchen God's annual report. Anyway, there are only few days each year we could see snow on top of the distant mountains at our location. It was a beautiful and cold day. Staying at home I painted another still-life. The mouse pot holder I found out the other day was made of silicone rubber. I bought another squash just because I loved the colors. So I made my still-life more fun looking, and hoping it will usher in a happy year of the rat.  At the same time I

Add caption 2020 Day15 40% chance to rain, then I decided to stay at home. Thought I could paint my aloe vera, but I just discovered they were so sick from the rain without sun. It was one of my most favorite plants, and I used it so many times to recover from sunburns, cuts or cooking burns. I felt bad that I didn't take good care of my plant, though most of them were succulents. Spent an hour or two to clean up. Tried not to upset myself. Then I found a rat pot holder I bought sometime ago that I forgot about it. The Year of Rat is coming in 10 days. Did a watercolor black and white sketch before starting to use it.

2020 Day11 No matter how busy during the weekend, I did not forget to do a watercolor sketch today... 2020 Day12 This watercolor sketch was what I did today. Are you a multitasking person? Can you create art while chatting? I have noticed there are people who manage time very well. I wish that I could be that way. But I feel time is chasing me all around, because I only can do one thing at the time, .. Time management is so important in life. I've known about it a long time, still have to learn how to manage mine better.

2020 Day8 What a busy day staying at home! Thought about how to create an auspicious work for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - the Year of Rat. Actually I had been thinking about it since last Christmas. I used to be very good and fast when I worked as a graphic/web designer a long time ago... I had forgotten how much I had to go through with the design process, it made my head ache. Focused on the limited items I had, using traditional colors, meaningful symbols, and symmetrical layout. I enlarged an ancient coin, which means prosperity, wrote Fu, Lu, Shou and Xi, those mean Luck, Prosperity, Longevity and Happiness on the coin in an ancient writing style. I only had one little rat, so I drew one, then flipped it to draw it again on the other side, made them look like they are communicating to each other by changing the shapes slightly, so one looks like a male, the other a female. They could be a couple, lovers or love at first sight. My most challenging part was to draw tw

2020 Day5 Tried to create another one for the upcoming Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat. Just a watercolor wash. Still thinking, will continue trying a couple more ideas...

2020 Day3 I thought I should create a piece for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat by the auspicious symbols in our culture. I just don't want to copy the stuff I have. Spent hours in the afternoon, but the painting looked like this... I tried to think positively how I could improve the painting. Any suggestions?

Between the end of May and the early of June of 2019, I joined one of the international Plein Air groups organized by professional Chinese artists. It was located in southern China in a 2,500 year old, ancient Canal-town near Suzhou, call Luzhi 甪直. Several great artists were invited to do demos and lectures. About 40 artists attended, most of them were Chinese professional artists. The event also included some American and Australian artists Billyo O'Donnell, Joseph Mcgurl and Kasey Sealy. We painted, listened to demos and lectures in the evening, ate food and partied for te days... We had a great time together, exchanged knowledge, not only about Plein Air, but also art and history, etc.. Food was great, we had more than 12, sometime 15 dishes each lunch and dinner, and meals included wine and beer. It was the first trip to China for Billy, Joseph and Kasey. Weather was nice and a little bit steamy, but it was gray most of time when we were there. There was one watercolor dem

🎉Happy Lunar New Year! ㊗大家春節快樂吉祥如意🎈🎈🎈 🐔Chinese Rooster New Year starts on January 28, 2017. Traditionally, adults give small red envelopes with money inside for luck to younger generations.  Between January 25 to February 14, you can get 25% discount if you order any prints or products of my original art. This is a limited time offer, simply view my website @ xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com , then enter "MZBPXC" as discount code before your check the order(s) out. 🎨If you interested in collecting any my original artwork, please message me or email me. Thank you for all the support, thank you for viewing and liking my original artwork😊!

Hope my Chinese symbol study which I created this painting with could bring a great deal of positive aspects into your lives.  It contains a number of auspicious symbols including: one turtle, two butterflies and a pair of chairs (a couple of lovers), three Star Gods, three Mandarins, and Nine Chrysanthemum flowers in one vase. Hope my explanation of these symbols could help viewers to understand the meaning, and bring health, happiness and prosperity into your daily lives. Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) symbols are on the vase - The Three Star Gods are the God of Fortune (fuxing 福星), God of Prosperity (luxing 祿星) and God of Longevity (shouxing 寿星), each recognizable by the characteristic iconography. They are often represented together. Vase (花瓶) Because of the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace", vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual pea

Chrysanthemum often called mums or chrysanths, are perennial flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae which are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. It is one of the longevity or strengthened symbols in Chinese culture, which signify long lasting and has durability. Thus Love, success, commitments, luck - what you wish could last forever can be augmented by displaying these beautiful autumn flowers. Vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual peace and harmony in the home". This is because the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace". The vase is also one of the eight auspicious signs of Buddhism being one of the objects found on the footprints of Buddha. One of the most popular words that is frequently rendered in calligraphy is the word that means Longevity. When the characters that are written are also auspicious words, those are usually regar

Dream in the Night — Interpreted by Xu YuanChong Abed, I see a silvery light, I wonder if it's frost aground. Looking up, I find the moon bright; Bowing, in homesickness I'm drowned. 静夜思 — 李白 床前明月光， 疑是地上霜。 举头望明月， 低头思故乡。 (Please click the image to enlarge) This poem written by Li Bai (701 – 762) who was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period  - China's "golden age" of classical Chinese poetry (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bai ). It was one of the first classical poems I was taught before my primary school. Of course, I would not know the meaning at that young age. The older I get and the farther I live from home, the deeper I feel this poem, which is more often appearing in my head. Hiding my tears used to be part my character. But now, I can no longer control it behind my eyes whenever I think of it... Another Mid-Autumn Festival is coming again, which is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese