Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

October 31 Day 1 My second year participating the annual Plein Air. Very happy to see Laurie, the event chair, and other artists when I checked in, though it was gray and cold, only 53 degrees. Luckily all the participants got parking permits next to the City Hall. Dragged my stuff walked partway through town and met several painters. Decided to paint on the pier, and got permission from the store owner to set up my gear in front of his shop. There were three or four older guys chatting across from me, some passers by dressed up Halloween outfits complimented my work. Then I moved back to my car, drank water and ate some snack. Went back and started painting my second one, smaller size, but I liked the colors of the building. It was getting colder, watercolor paper wasn't drying, and took much longer to do my next steps. It was about near sunset, so I decided to hit the road for home. November 1 Day 2 It was raining heavily at the location... November 2 Day 3 Arrived there and fou

My first time going to this park next to Vasona Lake County Park.  Nice fall afternoon with warm sunshine.  My artist friend guided me to this lovely spot with a railway racks in front of the old buildings.  Instantly a huge "wildcat" moving on the roof scared me.  Haha, there was Halloween decoration for the kids.  We set up our equipment and started to paint.  It was a quiet park, some people walking around, some of them took their dogs.  They gave us some compliments.  After our work was done, walked around and found several paintable spots for coming back to do more paintings.  (October 27 2022)

Gorgeous day for outdoor paintings. While I was drawing, a train was running on the railway, I took short video. I didn't know how many cars the train carried, but it ran at least ten minutes long. Struggling with the layout, and the details of the historic train I was painting. Came home I realized that I didn't need that much. Just cropped it, and it looked much better. And would you believe, I found some charming artwork in the public bathroom. Several years ago I went to this historic charming town for Plein Air. Walked around and found a good spot to set up my painting station, then found out I didn't bring any paper at all. LOL, had to go home... (October 24 2022)

Did not go out painting for almost three weeks, so I went to Elizabeth Gamble Garden in the afternoon. There is always something inspiring for me to paint. Several subjects were in my mind, but none of them I could paint, the teahouse was undergoing renovation, and the water fountain didn't look nice during this visit. Set up my stuff and painted the nursery. Warmer than I thought, overdressed, but I didn't have different layers to take off. Sunset time is earlier, so I didn't finished and had to pack up in hurry. Arrived at the studio, we had a male model tonight. Not often we have male model to practice, felt strenuous during the three hours of drawing short poses. Also I started using different a kind of paper today.  This type of paper doesn't have the tooth to grab the charcoal, too smooth for me.  But I just start using them.  Hopefully I could overcome it soon.. Had finished 500 pieces of paper in one year of studio figure drawings, hope to get a little improveme

My first time to this location delivering two of my Plein Air painting for the up coming POP group exhibit at the Manor house "Twin Pine Art Center", Our reception will held from 2 pm to 4 pm on October 9.Nice to see our organizer and the other artists. We instantly became volunteers, helping move our paintings from one room to the other. There were several shows of local artists', I checked them out upstairs and downstairs. Julia and I painted in the park. There was a memorial service at the lodge. We guessed that the people might be from Hawaii, because we could hear the music. There was a huge tree in front of the lodge, so it became my subject to work on.  Julia painted near the creek. Seems that summer isn't over yet with all the heat we felt. Caught up a little bit with her after our work was done. Unbelievable it was the last day to September. (September 30 2022)

In the morning on the way back from my dentist, found this old factory warehouse surrounded by new buildings. Felt an urgent need to paint it, because it might be gone someday soon... I painted under the open air roof protecting machines and tools from the sun, so I kept moving to stay in the shade.  A bell rang once for several times in the distance, I couldn't detect where it came from. A guy drove by in a pick up truck and stopped next to where I was painting.  He politely asked me if he could help.  I told him that I was painting the buildings.  Seemed that he really understood as he said that we need to keep record of it before they were destroyed. All the land is getting more expensive in Silicon Valley. But this area looked so peaceful, there were orange orchards and this precious old part of a warehouse remaining.  A couple of private properties were hiding behind but I couldn't go in to see them.  (September 23 2022)

I didn't go out painting last week, because of the dog day week. There were several painting location ideas in my mind this morning, so I drove the car to check out some locations. Non of them worked, might be the gray morning. So, I set my work station up in front of the catholic church so I could paint the old adobe building.  Spent a long time drawing.  I saw a guy was standing in front of the campus wall.  He stood there for a long time, I was able to draw him into my work. I always could get inspired by the beautiful campus at Santa Clara university. There was a construction nearby, I could hear the loud noise. A lady carried a child walked by asking me for directions, felt bad that I could not help. Later a Mexican gardening guy came blowing leaves by the church. He was kind and tried to avoid the area where I was painting. Took much longer to finish and it was getting hot around noon. (September 12 2022)

It is such a beautiful home and garden to visit. We came often whenever we passed by. Hadn't visited it for a long time, probably since pandemic. I always wanted to paint here too, though it was challenging, no matter how much I love plants, my reaction to pollen can bother me for days. Never mind, I told myself that I had to go. Surprisingly, there was no parking left in the morning, so I parked my car in the street. And saw many volunteers working in the garden. Most of they looked like seniors. It was not easy to find a subject to paint. So much variety, encompassing herb & rose gardens, a historic home, a carriage house & a tearoom... I walked around it twice, almost decided to paint the tearoom, because it was my first time seeing the door open, but I was fascinated by the gorgeous lotus glowing leaves in the water fountain under the morning sunlight. Immediately, I set up my workstation and started to draw. A small bird accompanied me less than ten feet away while I

Followed Google maps, I didn't remember how many turns required to drive to this location. I didn't even know such a huge, historic mansion existed. My first time to come here and paint. I found a shady spot and set up my gear. It took me much longer to draw. Besides, walked into the building to use the restroom, I decided to come back to check out the rest of the  interesting parts of the Architecture and the park. It was so nice to see several other Plein Air artists I hadn't seen for a long time.. We shared our ideas about the paintings we did or had mostly finished. (August 22 2022)