Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Thought to do something different, Apple Park was a good place for sketching and not far from where I live. and some of our local artists were meeting up there today.  Sun came out this morning after weeks of rain. I was not well prepared for it. Found my pencils, sketch book, eraser and outdoor chair in a rush. Felt I should have more hands to carry each of them, why didn't I grab a bag and have everything in it? Warm in the sun, but not in the shade. There were many young olive trees, I guessed that they were the same age as the Apple Headquarters. Tried one sketch that had architecture, and one very stylish artist I drew her into my work. Then I started to draw other artists. Walked through the Apple park's "mirage" sculpture takes shape as iridescent glass pillars winding through trees. Chatted with several artists to catchup, left after in the afternoon. (January 25 2024)

My third time coming to paint this Gothic Revival style church.  Once I painted it in the late afternoon.  Today I painted in the morning. There was a red SUV parked in front, but I had no idea when it had been switched to a white one. It was not a quite an intersection, cars and people were passing by, some of them on the bikes or other kinds of transports. I noticed that there was guy cleaning the front of the church, so I painted him into my work. (October 16 2023)

Planned to Plein Air in the morning, but there were some household things that interrupted that plan . It was about 4pm when I set up to paint at the Downtown Campbell Light Rail Station,  I've painted near this Light Rail Station several times over the past two years and have found it a very interesting place to paint from different angles in the morning or in the afternoon. For example just this red warehouse I painted from the other side in the morning on the last day of 2021.  This building had a "for sale" sign on it.  Today the sale sign still was on the fence, but the messiness I saw around before was all cleaned up.  It is unusual that a property could be on sale for so long in Silicon Valley. Many times I've told myself that I should not copy what I see exactly, so  today I slightly moved things around or implied things a little bit.  Slowly but surely I will get there for sure one day. There was a condominium behind where I was painting....

I didn't plan where to paint today until driving down the road, I thought it should not be more than 10 miles driving, but I missed the turn and had to u-turn a couple of times. I decided to paint at Niles in Fremont again. I was surprised that there was almost no traffic on #880, but the traffic started after I got on the Mission Road. I waited inside the car patiently, noticed it was 96 degrees outside. Felt the waiting time was much longer than the travel all the way here. Passing through the Mission San José, suddenly I remembered that I wanted to paint this gorgeous historic building each time I passed by, why not today? Got off the main road, parked my car, then saw a better shady spot and parked the car.  Walked to see where I could paint.  Then walked back to my car and re-parked near where I painted. It was really hot, I set up my station under an old pepper tree that gave me the most shade. It was almost 4 pm by then and I had to buy bread, the shop closed at ...

Recently I discovered this beautiful park in Niles. So I planned to paint there until sunset. Gorgeous fall afternoon, but I hit intolerable traffic on the way even though I thought that it was before rush hour. It was almost 4 pm after I found a spot and set up my work station. The sketch part was super easy, not much detail, but relocated the trees a little bit. After that I was struggling work with color, which I usually don't need to worry about much. Just because that bald mountain was getting sienna color during sunsetting, and the reflection into the water.  I tried warm tone colors I carried with me, seemed that none of them worked well in this watercolor.  Maybe I really should work on a value study before laying down colors instantly. There were a couple of guys fishing on the deck.  One told me that he didn't even get a bite from a fish.  Felt we had the similar unexpected result at the same location, LOL... The traffic was not as slow on my return thank ...

I thought I wanted to paint the church. Then I changed my mind after I saw the light and shadows on this building were so interesting. Found a shady spot under a tree off the street, set up my workstation, and spent a little bit more time sketching out the details. Wish I was an architect, could get all the perspective correct in the first pass but it took a little longer. A college boy walking by said "good morning" and startled me because I was so focused on my work. He was very polite though and apologized. Later when I was almost done the painting, a lady passing by and said "so beautiful" and scared me again. I guess I haven't been out in the public painting enough lately. She apologized too, and I told her no need to worry and we chatted a bit. She had an Australian Shepherd dog with the most beautiful eyes. She told me that her dog was super-smart and sweet. It was a nice day to enjoy the breeze and get out into the fall air. (September 27 2023)

My first time painting at this location.  A hot day, arrived a little early, but I realized that there wasn't any easy subject for me to paint. Did not want to waste the trip, so I dragged my painting gear and walked a while, then decided to paint from this angle.  Not enough variety of features to make the scene exciting but at least there were some white birds on the water. It was quite a annoying with so many bees buzzing around me.  I checked and cleaned up my paints in case they were attracting them.   After my painting was done and returned home, I started to wash my painting cloths.  Hopefully there won't be anything to attract insects next time. (August 28 2023)

I have been there a couple times before, but it was my first time painting at the location.  A gray day, drove on the winding highway 17 for about an hour, met up with several other artists at the parking lot of Natural Bridge State Beach. We found our own spots and started painting.  The spot I got was under eucalyptus tree branch, but at a higher level so I was able to see the Natural Bridge better. I asked a lady who carried a bucket, thought she was a fisherman.  But she told me that she picked up garbage on the beach as volunteer before her work.  So I drew her into my painting.  Later I saw another lady doing the same thing.  How wonderful! I removed my paints with honey medium already, as I'm not sure which paint attract honey bees. But I still got many bee visitors while I was painting. And a spider visitor too. Unfortunately, one of the artist got stung by a "yellow jacket". Seemed she was OK, moved to a new spot and painted another painting. I ...

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 frie...

Went to the beautiful Sikh Gurdwara located in South San Jose. My second time going there, not for Plein Air, this time I wanted to try drawing people indoors. The kitchen opened and served food when I arrived. I wore my black hat with a scarf over my head and shoulders.  Found a carpet to sit down on, where I could a better view of other people, mostly Indian I think.   I haven't practiced drawing people with clothes on for a long time, had noticed that Indian clothes were harder for me to draw since I never wear them, have no clue how everything connects on the body. And drawing professional models no matter for 2 minutes, 5 minutes or longer, they are trained not move.  But those people came to kitchen for food and socializing.  They moved their the hands, bodies, heads all the time, and never stop.   I had to draw them by memorizing.  Lucky I brought my favorite brush pen, it helped me draw better after I found it in my bag. A guy came out o...

It was Easter Friday. We rented a studio behind the Triton Museum of Art. More than ten artists, most of us live nearby, some of them drove from Sacramento and Northern Beach (north of Marin county). We were all ready, waiting for our model who came from San Francisco, an hour drive away. We got started at 11 o'clock. Ended up it worked out for two sessions, because the lunch break was cut by a half an hour, and extended to another half hour long. Nice studio, quite spacious. I started with a used canvas panel 16"x20", actually I sanded my last week's model study off. I noticed that I didn't have enough space for continuing my work after the first break, then I wiped it off, restarted it again. Our model was not very stable, so it was challenging for us to settle down our sketches and continue on with our work. We all painted quietly, only could hear the sound of brushes moving up and down on canvas. One of the artists brought a half bag of mandarins from her tree...

We are lucky to have a program that allow us practice on live figures in the studio.  I have been working on drawing and painting from live models for a year and a half now.  Found out that good models are very important to artists when studying them live.   Tonight we had a new model, she was introduced as working towards her graduation at Stanford University.  What a smart student and working hard too.  Also she is a good model, deserved generous tips. Short pose drawings are challenging, never feel that you have enough time to draw one properly. Actually it really depends on the artist, how many years experience of the drawing skill, what the artist wants to experiment with etc.  Some of artists now draw on an electric device like iPad for digital drawing.  To me after I stopped working as a graphic designer, I don't have much interest in working on computer any more, because I feel I have had enough.  I really enjoy working with traditio...

Drove to the studio during rush hour, and surprisingly there was no traffic jam on #101. Many new faces there. One thing I am sure of is that they were much younger than me. Allan was a wonderful model, though I don't get enough practice drawing male figures. I did OK, and the younger artists gave me complements, or some of them gave me a look that told me I did well. All I know is how long I have been struggling on drawing short poses, and I have been practicing for over a year and half now. To all the younger age artists, they have plenty time to catch up in their skills. (April 11 2023)

Looked like a nice day, but it was not warm yet. The morning light shown down making this spot more interesting looking. There were many light rail train passing by, I set up my station and spent more time to draw. Tried some different color combinations, and unusual techniques, not satisfied with the results, should be more loose… (March 7 and March 23 2022)

Last year I painted about 150 Plein Air paintings, and drove too many places far away. Started at the end of last year, I thought that there were many places nearby me that were really paintable. Also went back to the same place as last time to paint again, but from a different angle and in the afternoon. Light came out once in a while which made all the subjects look more interesting. We had a week or two cold and rainy days, but it was about 60 degrees today.  Of course I had to dress up like northern California kind of winter with my winter hat on.  There was a white pick up truck in front of the station, it was gone after I started painting so I had to finish it from memory.  I know some people, or even some kids can draw very good vehicles like cars and motorcycles.  Keep practicing and I will get better I remind myself, and also it is my new year resolution.  Finished up my work, it was already sunset, some people gave me compliments while they passing by....

Might be my last Plein Air painting in 2021. Russian Plein Air artists painting in the snow inspired me. It was only 46 degrees in the morning, but clear after many days of rain. I thought I could paint outdoors, but I wasn't brave enough, so I painted inside my car instead.  Sun came out, got warm inside the car, I had to open my window.  Liked the atmosphere, reminded me of an east coast small town train station. (December 30 2021)

Dec 3 Another gorgeous day. My second painting is at this historic location. Almost every angle was paintable, I had tough time to make up my mind. The alter was very old, two centuries old at least I guessed. I tried to design my work to have a strong focal point, painted a mother helping a girl going up the stairs, by combining the alter and people to make a story. Overpainted the alter. Jane, the organizer gave me great feedback. Finally, I had to erase the darker alter to balance the painting, but I am not happy with the result so far.  Painting loosely was not easy.

I was very happy that the owner of the shop bought my original Plein Air work. His wife told me that my painting meant so much to him and his family. He was the forth or fifth generation owned the shop. He was so proud of his family business, also he already used my painting picture as his smart phone's screen saver. All my hard work is worth it just for hearing such a heartwarming story.

Drove to Santa Cruz in the foggy morning, surprisingly caught into traffic, because of one lanes was closed on Route 17. Very difficult decision which subject to paint, they were all beautiful with very interesting reflections. And boats could sail away if I only focus one... Beautiful day but cold, air was so fresh at the harbor. Sun was strong shone on my watercolor paper and reflected into my eyes. Luckily I brought my Plein Air umbrella. My umbrella was blown into the water when I painted here last time. So I made sure it was set up properly. Tired, left before 2 pm, almost no traffic all the way back home.