Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Raining season finally has come.  It was the challenging part of Plein Air. Rained over night, a little unpredictable during daytime, not easy for painting outdoors. My husband pointed out the unique clouds outside our home window this morning. Fall colors were still there, also there were cooler colors in the distance with the fogginess. Wonderful for a watercolor work I thought. I brought my Plein Air painting pack upstairs, and started an "indoor" plein air landscape painting. Actually, I've wanted to paint the view outside our front of the window for over a decade of living at here, especially during the winter, when the scenery looks more beautiful after most of the leaves have fallen. There was an orange tree in the neighbor's backyard. I changed it to a pine tree, to carry some spirit of the coming holidays since there is no snow in our location. I enjoyed painting inside, didn't have to suffer from the cold or hot. windy or sunburn weather... but it ...

Good news to share for the coming up holidays, my figurative oil painting "Diary of Venus" won the 1st place in oil, juried by Pancho Jimenez at Great Bay Area Open (GBAO) "Potentiality/Actuality" biennial exhibition in the NUMU museum Los Gatos. There are many great works created by Bay Area based artists and the exhibition is open to the public at NUMU museum in Los Gatos until March 9 2024. I took a break from painting outdoors after Capitola Plein Air event. Of course I still paint at my home studio. Gorgeous day here in winter, it looked like fall. Though it was only 59 degrees, I felt warm in the sun. All foliage showing autumn leaf colors like yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown, which contrasted the blue sky and other plants of green were everywhere. It was great to go out and paint a day before the rainy season starts. Drove to Sunnyvale and the Heritage Park Orchard jumped into my mind. I think it is always inspiring when I drive on streets named af...

My last Plein Air painting in Half Moon Bay was done in July last year.  I remember it was such a cold day.  Today I caught only light traffic and little road work on the way.   It was a gorgeous day, hills turned green, and flowers started blooming after days of rain.  I was looking for the Giusti farm in Half Moon Bay CA without knowing the address.  Luckily, I found it by noticing other artists painting along the High Way #1, only had one extra turn.  There were acres of mustard flowers in the fields and up to the hills. Some were lemon yellow, some already had turned to Indian yellow.  They were more attractive contrasted with the fresh spring green grasses in between.   Usually start with a small sketch, not this time since I was a little bit behind schedule.  I reminded myself that I should focus on the main subject to paint.  It didn't take too long, and I was happy with the result.   Very nice to see some...

It has been over a week since I painted out. I always wanted to come back to this place and paint in spring, finally I made it before all the grasses turned yellow. Found a peaceful spot in the shade, watching all the girls cleaning the horses, then riding them on the trails while I was painting. There was a lady training a horse and made the area full of dust near me. That horse might be not cooperating. I heard the trainer using a whip in the air and talking to the horse, "what kind of horse are you" One young girl finished her riding and came to see my painting. She told me that she read books and found out she really loved horses since she was a child. Another lady Tania complimented my painting and we had chat. She told me something about horses I didn't know after she saw a horse in my painting. She wasn't Russian, but her name was given from her mother's Russian friend. What a lovely day and got to paint at this beautiful place! (April 15 2022)

Painted at the same spot as I had last early spring. I moved the water tower to the right, and painted a a more open landscape by leaving out the old tree I included last year.  There were several parking spaces when I arrived.  I tried five times to park my car, almost every available spot. Finally I parked back into the first spot, just because I wanted to use my trunk door's shape to block the sunlight.  It was a nice day, not warm yet.  It was getting windy around noon, I knew it was the time to pack it up. (March 9 2022)

Went to the Sunnyvale Heritage Park orchard, it is always fun to drive through the local streets, those are named with some of the greatest visual artists and musicians in  history. Robbia, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Sargent, Romberg; Mozart, Choppin, Puccini, Offenbach, etc.. What a great way to be inspired and review history. Two years ago I painted here, while the workers were drying apricots. It looked like they were working on the apricots today. And I found out the barn was more appealing today after reading the sign on the wall: " The Bianchi Bros. barn was constructed circa 1918 on Capitol Ave and Hostetter Road in San Jose and has been in continuous use since that time. It is a good example of the classic American barn with its unpretentious vernacular architecture. Barns are one of a rare handful of symbols that immediately evoke our national heritage and their honesty provides a strong regional identity to our agricultural p...

A quiet Friday morning.  Came to paint sunflowers. Remembered that I painted at the same garden in winter. Now there are more plants, many of them blooming. But I know that I came for the sunflowers. Met the lady that worked there, her name was Rachal. She was doing great job which attracted me to come back. Actually it is not a good idea for me to paint too near many flowers. My eyes hurt and my nose was running, but I did it, and moved the objects around a bit to make a more pleasing composition.  (June 11 2021)

A long term friend of my husband's invited us over to stay during this memorial weekend in Sonoma county. They bought a 20 acre property in Cloverdale 10 years ago, and moved in a couple years back. They love the country lifestyle and fit into it so well. We live in a suburban area. It is hard to imagine the hard work and many projects that have to be done out there. After our personal tour, we were super impressed by their great clean up job and endless efforts. Michele is a fabulous cook, and she is fond of Julia Child so we were in for a treat. We enjoyed her cooking, barbecued food, and her husband Raul's cocktail refreshments. We ate, hiked, wine tasted, watched TV shows, watched birds visiting all of their feeders, played games, chatted and laughed as we caught up on years of friendship. During our visit, I had a little time to squeeze in two very fast works. One was of the corner of their house, I saw the beautiful light coming through the fence in the morning...

(May 12 2021) Summer time really has arrived in the South Bay Area. Drove to Half Moon Bay this morning, definitely felt like traversing from summer to winter in about one hour. It was pretty cold, only 52 degrees at the location. And I didn't have any trouble to find the farm this time.  Painted watercolors on a grey day, so I decided to do a vertical one, only the easel were not designed for a 15" tall painting size, that was the reason I don't usually work in verticals.  It was a little challenging, besides the wind, I couldn't barely put any tiny bit weight on the painting for fear of it falling over.  Over all, I like my vertical layout today.  The hostess, KC Branscomb has been very kind in allowing us to paint at her farm, but we have to follow her very strict rules for parking, not to close to the horses, because these are breeding horses at the farm, and young horses in training, etc.. Anyway, we only were allowed to paint in certain area. ...

Last week while painting at Sue's farm, the owner of Branscomb farms invited us to come paint. Last time I forgot to charge my car, but saw I had enough electricity and gas to cover the total mileage today. I followed Google maps this time to the address, because my car GPS didn't even show the address. After Cabrillo highway, I turned onto a street and got lost after over a mile up a dirt road. Finally Google told me to u-turn so I circled back and followed the new directions to a narrow private road where there wasn't anyone around and I arrived at a locked gate. A pickup truck suddenly pulled up from behind with a young guy and 2 dogs, he pointed me back down the dirt road again. I was worried to get a flat as we just changed to new tires so every mile counted... I thought I'd rather go paint boats at Johnson's Pier so headed out. On my way I saw a guy opening an unmarked gate and it turned out to be the farm. After over half an hour of goose chasing it was ...

(April 21 2021) Not like last week, only 50 degrees at the location. Very cold to paint watercolors, the paper refused to dry. And not to mention that I tried to painted too much detail for a Plein Air work. Really should simplify what was there. Maybe it would look better if only I did a greyscale. Good thing was I had no allergies to bother me today at Half Moon Bay.  Drove back, it was 70 degrees.

(April 14 2021) A gorgeous day at the location, even my allergies didn't bother me much. Got there and walked around, there was a red barn, a horse barn and horse trailers with horses in and out, chicken coop with roosters and hens, a mustard field and distant mountains. They were all nice subjects for painting, but I had to make a quick decision before the light changed too much, So I painted this red barn, and replaced the further broken fences in front. I probably could design a better composition that will work better... Next time, I will be back for sure.

(Feb.18 2021) On the way to the location, I had to stop a couple of times to capture cows alongside the road. Saw the close relationship between cow mother and cow baby, I felt very bad about not being a vegetarian. Thought all the cows would be my subject, but I checked out the location and found several spots that inspired me to create my work. In the end, I painted the horse barn. A young mother took her son for a hike, she took several photos of me painting at the location and sent them to me. It was very nice of her. Got some feedback from another artist Jane, she shared some info about the certain watercolor mixes that could have a beautiful reaction, would love to learn more about it.... Not sure why the horses looked like donkeys. Maybe because one of my brother-in-laws he paints donkeys influences me, hahaha... Never mind, there were donkeys in that barn anyway. Got to love the weather, learned how to check the weather report carefully and dress in layers for Plein Air. It was...

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!恭喜發財! Feb. 10 I knew that I should avoid outdoor activities during this season, especially near flowers, whose strong pollen has beaten me down for years. But it was very beautiful to see all the yellow mustard flowers last week, didn't feel I had painted enough of them. So I went back again, and the weather was gorgeous, besides it being a little windy and chillier than last week. Actually the beauty is in being outdoors, and express the feeling of one's own. One young mother took her baby girl inside the flower fields. She was super polite, came across all the muddy road about 50 meters, and asked me if they would block my view when they having picnic there. Felt warm inside my heart that some people really care what an artist was doing. She just didn't know how tiny they were in the flower fields, I barely noticed them. I was there to be inspired instead of copy anything. I decided to move all the objects around, after a small sketch, painted...

Didn't paint outdoors for two weeks, really missed it. Went to Half Moon Bay, it was beautiful and warm. Painted a yellow mustard flower field at the edge of a major noisy road, it was still muddy after days of rain. Many people stopped by taking photos of the gorgeous yellow flowers. After my first painting done, I really wanted to see and paint boats, I missed painting them very much. Over the years, I have taken countless photos of the boats at Johnson Pier, and can't even remember how many times I've painted at this location, many fishing boats I recognize over the years. Looked like the local business was doing OK. Differently, I found a good spot on the deck, and set up my work station. The deck was narrow, I had to keep reminding myself not to backup, only one step and I could fall into the sea. A sea lion swam around nearby me, only about five meters away. Loved all the dramatic clouds, and happy to see all the fishermen selling crabs. Bought one as a rewar...

Decided to paint something different. I saw many gardens have been growing vegetables since the pandemic, thought it was a different subject to paint. So drive around and found one. Set up my workstation and found I did not have any paper with me. Drove back to get the paper. Set up my painting station again, and I didn't bring any water with me. Hahaha, I guess that is a sign of getting old and forgetful. Luckily, there was a water hose nearby. Sun was out for a short time, mostly it was gray. There were flowers still blooming, vegetables, like pees, luffa hanging on the fence, and other greens still growing. We really are spoiled by California's good weather. Inspiration and paint how I feel are more important than copy what I see exactly. That's why I keep painting loose. Moved the pot under the sunflowers, we all needed the positive feeling in life, especially during the current situation. (Jan 12 2021)

My first time painting at this location near Half Moon Bay. Followed Google and found this unique, old western town nestled in the rolling countryside along the San Mateo coast. Such a unique place, I had a hard time to make decision, then I saw a real cute pig alone sleeping inside the Jail, felt quite some pity for it. So painted next to the Jail, at least provided companionship to the little sleepy, lonely pig. The building I focused on to paint was next to the fence. Wondered why there was so much dust in the air. Finally I saw a horse next to wall, might try to communicate with me. Gorgeous day after I had so much delicious food and celebrated our shared birthdate together at one of my girlfriends' house yesterday. But this morning I was a little bit frustrated, my car GPS which had the options of the shortest distance choice, but Google map showed the fast way. I usually use both in case the signals lost. There was almost ten miles difference between those two, who I should f...

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!

2020 Day2 Have you been to the Red Barn at Stanford? Do you know it was a horse farm that produced champion racehorses before Stanford became a world class university? My first time visiting and painting at the location. It was a beautiful day, I brought a very young Chinese artist friend with me. We met at a watercolor event in Shanghai where she was from last year. She came to visit her relatives in Silicon Valley. She told me that it was her first time being so close to real horses. The barns were very clean and well-organized, and the horses were gentle and well trained. I painted one landscape, she did a couple of sketches. I took a selfie with a super cooperated horse, seemed that she really enjoyed posing, lol... We learned that now the Stanford Red Barn is home to the Stanford Equestrian Team, the Stanford Red Barn Equestrian Center, and their affiliated programs. Definitely I will be back to paint again for sure.

The Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum is adjacent to the 10 acre Orchard Heritage Park where about 800 trees were laden with ripe delicious Blenheim apricots. I didn't know this lovely place until today. Seemed that there was a big harvest of apricots, there were a couple workers delivered buckets of apricots to the those were making dry apricot fruit by hands. It was very interesting watching the process while I was painting in the middle of Silicon Valley, hard to believe certain people still working in very traditional way here, like me in this high tech area. I must come back and paint again.