Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

In the morning I went to Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto, CA. It was a beautiful day, felt the fall in the air. I drove around at the location, resided to paint the Bayland Ranger Station. First as usual I did a sketch, then set up my Plein Air stuff. After everything was ready, I realized that I didn't bring my watercolor paper and the support board. Mad at myself, my second time made the same mistake. Took a couple of photos on my smartphone, came home to paint this one since the light and the place I wanted to paint were still vividly in my memory. (Updating from September 13, 2018)

Being an outdoor painter, checking the weather forecast is very important. It was a beautiful day yesterday, I didn't bother to check and was excited to find a great new nature preserve. There were many kinds of birds, the dramatic sky, distant mountains... What a perfect place to paint a landscape in watercolors. Marilyn saw me painting and took a p hoto of me, she mentioned that it was going to rain. It did start raining only a few minutes after she left. I was crazily in rush packing my staff, while a nice gentleman was passing by and offered if he could help. I should say thanks instead of "No!", and wished he were an umbrella... It is so easy to miss an opportunity to show one's appreciation. I hope to meet this person again to say a big Thanks! So far I have been quite spoiled with our lovely California weather. I really am grateful in life, no matter little thing or big, they all inspire me to paint. More original artwork @  http://xueling-zou.pixels.