Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Our summer starts late than in most locations, but it finally has arrived.  It was almost 90 F degrees, seemed that it was a perfect day went to beach and paint with friends to get my motivation back. I checked the weather report, but it never tells the right coastal weather condition.  It showed only 57 F degrees when I drove to Santa Cruz.  I hesitated but knew I should continue.  I didn't want to come out of my car after I arrived. There were a local store next to the Cabrillo Highway near the Panther Beach.  I pulled over because I wanted to use the restroom.  Not surprised that I had to buy something before I got the key.  Checked out the store, mostly vegetables and fruits that were quite costly, some of them from local and looked fresh.  I bought a large beet with leaves on it.   I was told that I was not allowed to park in front of the store, than I moved my car to park cross the High Way #1.   Didn't see my artist friends yet, I decided to walk to the beach to check wh

Celebrating 10 years of my blog today!  https://originalartstories.blogspot.com/2011/09/ Here is my first blog story on September 14 2011: A Dog's Fate - 一条狗的命运   https://originalartstories.blogspot.com/2011/09/dog-fate.html Another gray day, only 57 degrees, super cold at the location. Hiking on the breathtaking coastal trail after Plein Air last week, I discovered this magnificent outlook on the trail, but had to carry my heavy painting gear walking down about 60 big steps. No big deal but the watercolor paper wouldn't dry easily in this kind of weather condition. So I had to paint differently than I normally do. Rocks, waves and trees were difficult to paint. Overall I think my painting result was OK. About 50 miles, but there were about 30 degrees temperature difference at the location and my home. (September 14 2021)

It was very gray and only 60 degrees at the location this morning, my first time painting here. Looking for a public restroom, surprisingly met another Plein Air painter L X (my name's short cut as XL, haha... what a coincidence) So we painted nearby each other. Then hiked after our paintings were done and happily caught up on the time since COVID-19... Very foggy, walked the rocky and windswept shoreline trail,  could not even see the Golden Gate Bridge, but there was a spectacular scene each turn of the trail even on such a gray day.  Definitely will be back and paint again. What an inspirational place!  On the way back, got caught up in a little traffic, and it was 93 degrees at home.  (September 7 2021)

What a gorgeous day came back to paint, though it was windy and chilly. There were a couple of beautiful pine trees and surrounding rocks on the edge of the cliffs were beautiful, especially under the morning light. I was so focused on my work, constantly stopped, backed up to view how I did... Once I backed up a little further, suddenly I noticed that I was standing on the very edge of the cliff, lucky me that I didn't fall, lol... Yesterday I planned to paint at Pigeon's Point Lighthouse, but the weather report indicated very strong winds there, so I didn't go. Then I went to San Jose area, found a historical warehouse I wanted to paint, but there were three small dogs barking next to me endlessly, I had to give it up...  (April 10 2019