Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Long and tiring day, drove more than 140 miles, not counting the milage getting lost when both my car GPS and Google maps lost signal and took me in the wrong direction. It was worth the long way drive, to paint at such an inspiring historic location on a gorgeous day. I instantly found the boat that I wanted to paint, only set up took me longer time, my umbrella kept falling down to the ground with every little bit of wind. Finally Al, the organizer artist, helped and made it stable. There were still many people at the wharf even though it was a weekday. Some of them might be coming daily to buy fresh fish. I didn't have time to think anything else, tried to focus on my work. A motorcycle never turned off the engine, made very loud noises behind me. The situation improved after the motorcycle was gone. On the way home, I saw so many Mexican workers working in the fields, and I knew they were hard working people, their lives were not easy in this country, especially during the pand

Which painting do you like? #1 today's or #3 spring time? Second time painting the same subject, last time I did it in the afternoon. Today it was hot, I was well prepared and painted on the side walk path under trees. I didn't plan to paint the car, the composition I don't usually set up in the very middle. I remembered that one of my paintings sold to a shop owner nearby, his wife told me that my painting was all about his life, shop, boat and car... I thought I had to add the car into my painting, because that the story behind the subject was drawing me back again. Light and shadows were very different than when I painted here last spring, but much quieter, maybe due to the pandemic. The fence next to me was somebody's backyard where a guy was working inside, and I could hear his young age daughter calling him a couple times. He listened to the radio the song was "Hotel California", it really helped me got into the feeling to paint! Living in California abo

Happy New Year! 新年快樂!  How was your New Year day? 2020 Day1 Gave myself a couple days off before the New Year, studied about art history. Today was gray, I came to the location to paint my favorite subject boats. Saw many people walking on the Harbor, some of them bought crabs from the local fishermen. It started sprinkling, so I had to do my work inside the car. The fishing boat I worked on was very interesting, but it wasn't easy to do... I did a drawing, a watercolor sketch. And brought a crab for our dinner table for celebrating the first day of 2020.

Raining, windy and cold. Came to draw and paint at one of my favorites places - Pillar Point inside the car. Felt little bit crazy about myself or should be mad at the weather, though, lol...