Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Dec. 13 It was Sunday,  I woke up a little bit late than usual. Our raining season finally came. Sounds quite poetic just looking at the gray clouds and listening to the rain drops, right? Painting outdoors for several years nearby now, I thought that I had already become an expert to know local weather well. I checked the weather report a couple of times, it said that there was very high chance to rain. I didn't believe it, instead I went to the location, started my small study sketch. It was misty, no big deal. After laying my first wash down, it really started raining. I had to pack as quick as I could, ran into my car, my rain jacket was full of the rain all over. Only half way home, rain stopped, I wanted to turn back badly, but I didn't, finished this one at home.

Came to one of my favorite places to paint in the afternoon. Just because I thought the subject I wanted to paint was more interesting in the afternoon light. But two main things I had forgotten, one was my paper towels, I only had two pieces super soft napkins handy. The other thing was heavy truck traffic around where I painted. It was a very noisy intersection, endless trucks passing by. Also it was windy, and I was facing the west direction, felt the sun always shone on my eyes. I guessed it was good for erasing the unnecessary details. A couple of passengers passing by, they were curious what I was doing. The result was good enough. And I had to run for the restroom, lol...because there wasn't public one nearby.

  Arrived at the location around 10am, just tried to avoid traffic in the morning. This unique building of the Laine's Bites shop was the one I had wanted to paint for a while, set up my station under a young tree with enough shade. A guy was sweeping the street, looked like he was trying to clean off all the dirt from the ground. There was so much dust in the air, I felt it hard to breath, my street parked car was covered with dust very soon. It was OK, I kept telling myself, and focused on my work... Maybe an hour later after the sweeping guy left, a spaying water truck started to clean the street. It was the most busy, small T-junction with endless huge trucks passing by both ways with the loudest squishing noises of heavy metal sounds. Wow, it was my first time to deal with this kind of situation, most of time I had to wait for the trucks to pass by, just because I want to see the object I was working on. The sweeping truck was back and forth at least 10 times in front of

So quiet and empty, I felt lost and confused while driving on the the same road in the same town. Everywhere looks much better without traffic doesn't it? I really like this little historical place, very paintable. Did a quick sketch, but it didn't help to lock my painting into a better composition. What I enjoyed painting directly on the paper with my watercolor brush without drawing, so my painting came out loose. Happy Labor Day! Hard to believe it is the beginning of September already. Hope everyone enjoy today and have a great month!