Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

From May 18 to 20, plein air on the California Coast along Cabrillo Hway #1.  The first day was beautiful, we drove to Point Lobos State Natural reserve about 10 am.  There was not a parking spot left, so we couldn't get in.  Instead we painted along the Cabrillo Hway #1.  Nice view but it was noisy.  Afternoon, painted on the hill, I found a further view of a house on the rock through the "window" of a big tree. We learned our lesson, drove into the park earlier the next morning.  Felt ambitious and brought our gear and set up near the Bird Island Trail near China Cove.  It was beautiful but too windy, had to pack the gear up, and felt "defeated in battle".  A photography couple we met on the trail told us that they could not get into the park yesterday too.  So they came in earlier this morning just like us. Then we painted at the bottom of China Cove because it was less windy, at the most popular Sand Hill Cove parking lot, overlooked the lonely tree on top o

“Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse  November 1 - Day 1 I was quite lucky to get an invitation to join the Capitola Plein Air Event, which I always wanted to join, but it didn't fit into my schedule in the past. Felt excited and checked the weather report constantly, but that didn't help to clear the rain. Arrived there in the morning, met the friendly volunteers, and Laurie the event chair, she was very helpful and made each detail super clear to me! Then Al checked in. He knew Capitola quite well, showed me a couple of places that had the great views. So thankful to him! After I drove to Shadowbrook Restaurant, it hadn't opened yet. I thought that I might paint there under the cover of the roof. An elegantly dressed lady told me that I had to call the restaurant manager, etc. So instead I started painting the front of the restaurant from under a tree with my trunk door open in the parking lot. Rain was slowing down a little bit. Another artist came and we met, she