Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Sister Wendy Beckett (born 25 February 1930) is a Catholic nun, who was born in South Africa and educated in Oxford where she was awarded a first class degree in English literature. She has lived a life of solitude for almost thirty years on the grounds of a monastery in England. I never knew about Sister Wendy until I started painting in 2001. Our local library carries a very decent amount of books and DVDs. So, I go there and check them out often, I have found many art resources. I did not pay too much attention to the stories behind each masterpiece before. I was more interested in learning the composition or techniques, etc. One day, I saw Sister Wendy on a cover of a DVD in the art section and just out of curiosity I brought it back home to watch. That was the most remarkable experience I had ever had. I was totally moved by her eloquence and charm, her profound spirit, her passion in art, her rich knowledge and outstanding description of sharing her views on each masterpiece

There are many beautiful portraits that have visually showed us the subject's personality, history and culture.  I think facial expression is another very interesting subject in art.  That is why I love to study it.  I do it differently than some artists who just copying a photo.  I'd rather to know a little bit more about my subject before I start painting.  Here are some some portraits I painted and the stories behind them.  Please visit my online gallery at:  http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/galleries.html to see more. Lady from Bangladesh was the portrait I painted in March 2011. We used to be neighbors for a short while. Her name is Tahmina. She was the mother of three very nice and well-educated boys, with such a sweet character. One early morning, I saw her dressed this lovely traditional pink/magenta sari in the garden, the morning light went through her veil, shining on her face... I went back and grabbed my camera immediately and took a couple of photos. Aft

Summer almost has gone. May be it is over already in some other states, but I live in California, and still can enjoy it a little longer - "Indian Summer". I created a series call "Summer Delight" by expressing how a joyful female feels in French impressionist style, mostly using palette knife. They are all smaller size 20" x 16" ( about 40cm x 50cm ). Hope my viewers like them as much as I enjoyed painting each one of those... They really are delightful expressions, imaging what the result could be if they hang up on your wall, bringing happiness and joy to your daily life:)!

This was the boy I captured and planned to paint in 2009 during my first visit to Argentina without speaking a single Spanish word. After landing in the beautiful old colonial architecture city, which has a natural scenery of the valleys westward - Salta located in northwestern Argentina, we were exhausted and starving, could not wait for most of the restaurants opened at 7PM. When travelling, we love to follow local people to try their really traditional food. Walking around the city, we found this small Empanadas Restaurant was full of local people in the very center of the downtown. Quickly we decided to give a try. We just learned how to order water, hadn't had learnt to count in Spanish yet. Most of families were sitting together eating there on this late of a Saturday afternoon. A young boy - about eight or nine years old immediately ran in front of us to take our order after we just sat down. I pointed at the other table's food, and showed my fingers one by one. We

This piece won the 1st place in the Contest - Shoes on May 18th, 2012.  This painting was inspired by "The Red Shoes", which was first introduced to me by my mother. To me The Red Shoes has become a symbol of a career woman who has devoted her life to her job, or made some sacrifice in life. I painted this piece with my love for my mother.  Slowly I understand her more and more day after day. Happy Mother's Day! Inside and out Mom and I are so different, only one thing I have in common with her - a fast walk. She is outgoing, can make friends everywhere she goes through a very short conversation, rich or poor, old or young, higly educated person or without any education, even in different cultures, sometimes without language communication... She was beautiful and talented in theater arts, dancing, singing and acting. She was chosen to be an actress in a couple of movies when she was very young. Then she became a principal opera singer (western style) preformed o

Struggling through the whole weekend, finally I finished Petko's portrait based on the only one picture I have ever seen of his - his FAA avatar. I hope it could express my thanks to Petko who had made an eight minutes and fifteen seconds long animated slide show with a beautiful music of my oil paintings on Youtube. After I did a search, and I had found out that I was only the one of one hundred eighteen FAA members Petko made such a wonderful work for! Being an artist, I really admire his great work through his FAA online gallery! His painting style is bold and energetic, really represents his passion and devotion to art and to other artists. Now, I feel that I have discovered his incredible soul is much bigger than ordinary artists. I do need some more English language to help express my respect, my honor and my great thanks to him!! Please visit my online gallery at:  http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/   Here is the animated slide show Petko Pemaro made for my oil pa

Dog and horse are the natural animals to get along with humans! They can remember people even after long separations. They have their own emotional expressions. As a visual artist, I think it is very important to capture their emotion and personal expression, just like when I do the portraits for humans, it doesn't matter which style I use in painting, but the communication is the key for success in painting portraits, I believe! They are loyal, sweet, really your most trustworthy friends. They can understand words better than expected, according to the research, and possess "excellent memories" too! They never leave you, no matter if you are happy or upset, poor or rich, they are always next to you. Just thinking of them, thinking about their best qualities of their personalities, it makes me want to paint them. Hope my paintings can really bring each viewer that kind of happiness:-)! ​Or join me at: FaceBook , Instagram , Twitter , Pinterest