Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

I didn't plan where to paint today until driving down the road, I thought it should not be more than 10 miles driving, but I missed the turn and had to u-turn a couple of times. I decided to paint at Niles in Fremont again. I was surprised that there was almost no traffic on #880, but the traffic started after I got on the Mission Road. I waited inside the car patiently, noticed it was 96 degrees outside. Felt the waiting time was much longer than the travel all the way here. Passing through the Mission San José, suddenly I remembered that I wanted to paint this gorgeous historic building each time I passed by, why not today? Got off the main road, parked my car, then saw a better shady spot and parked the car.  Walked to see where I could paint.  Then walked back to my car and re-parked near where I painted. It was really hot, I set up my station under an old pepper tree that gave me the most shade. It was almost 4 pm by then and I had to buy bread, the shop closed at 6pm. I did

Recently I discovered this beautiful park in Niles. So I planned to paint there until sunset. Gorgeous fall afternoon, but I hit intolerable traffic on the way even though I thought that it was before rush hour. It was almost 4 pm after I found a spot and set up my work station. The sketch part was super easy, not much detail, but relocated the trees a little bit. After that I was struggling work with color, which I usually don't need to worry about much. Just because that bald mountain was getting sienna color during sunsetting, and the reflection into the water.  I tried warm tone colors I carried with me, seemed that none of them worked well in this watercolor.  Maybe I really should work on a value study before laying down colors instantly. There were a couple of guys fishing on the deck.  One told me that he didn't even get a bite from a fish.  Felt we had the similar unexpected result at the same location, LOL... The traffic was not as slow on my return thank goodness. (

My first time painting at this location.  A hot day, arrived a little early, but I realized that there wasn't any easy subject for me to paint. Did not want to waste the trip, so I dragged my painting gear and walked a while, then decided to paint from this angle.  Not enough variety of features to make the scene exciting but at least there were some white birds on the water. It was quite a annoying with so many bees buzzing around me.  I checked and cleaned up my paints in case they were attracting them.   After my painting was done and returned home, I started to wash my painting cloths.  Hopefully there won't be anything to attract insects next time. (August 28 2023)

It has been unusually cold and rainy the past few days here. Decided to do a first Plein Air work in the month May. My first time visiting this historic park.  Only saw a few people, might be because of the cold and gray morning.  Found a spot and started my work.   I had to put an extra jacket on, and my work took a longer time to be dry enough for putting on the second and third layers.   Not the best work I've done, but it is a good start for the month. (May 10 2023) Or join me at: FaceBook , Instagram , Twitter , Pinterest

Pretty happy that my Plein Air watercolor painting "Coastal Bungalow" was accepted for the 11th Annual Fresh Works Juried Exhibition.  Dropped off my work at the Harrington Gallery Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton, and drove to Alviso Adobe Community Park.  My husband found this place online last night, because I was looking for a place to paint on the delivery painting day. Excited because it is a totally new painting spot for me.  After parking my car and dragging my painting gear to the Adobe House, I instantly tried taking photos for painting ideas.  A guy came out of the house and told me that kids are not allowed to be in the photos by their parents.  Then I noticed that many children were having on site class, I guessed.  I showed him a couple of the photos I just took, after enlarged the images, there were a couple of blurry dots in the  distance, from the clothing colors could tell that the mini-dots were humans.  He did his job and told me those were OK. I set up

This morning was only 40 degrees when I started out driving on the road. I checked the weather that it wouldn't rain in the morning, thought I should go to Plein Air. I was pretty sure that I had painted at the Foothill park last spring, and remembered that it wasn't too cold while painting on a sunny morning. There were only a few vehicles in the park. I saw two people walking their dogs and drove on the top of the hill where I thought I did a painting last year, and noticed all the trees were growing taller in the distance. I still thought to paint the same spot, so I could see if my outdoor painting skills have improved. It was chilly, saw there was still snow  on top of the distant mountains.  I told myself that I should use as little water as possible for the watercolor Plein Air, from my years' experience, I learned that paper won't dry if there was too much water, especially in the cold weather. I heard a guy playing guitar and singing songs nearby me, but I was

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)

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)

Gorgeous day in Carmel, we decided to paint the narrow road scene on the hill behind the Highland Inn where we stayed for two nights. It was just across the narrow road off the the parking lot of the hotel.  Afternoon light shone on a white house hiding deep into all the trees looked intriguing.  We wanted to paint it since our last trip. Set up our easels, straight away working on the painting.  A young woman came and told us that we were on her property, the little parking area off the narrow road.  And also she said that she would call the hotel and come out to check us too ...so we left, then did the rest of our 1st paintings inside our room, lol...  Wednesday morning we got up late, and went to Garrapata State Park.  Immediately I saw the sign of MPAPA's sign, so I knew that the local Plein Air painters were painting in  the park.   I saw Teresa first, she was from the South Bay area like us.  She was working on a beautiful pastel piece.  After chatting with her,  we then saw

It was a hot day for Plein Air at the location. There were many geese around while were painting. Good practice in such a hot weather condition, glad that I did it though. I finished mine very quick and watched  the geese and other artist painting. (July 11 2022)

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

Four-day-trip, it wasn't long, especially when we painted at the one of most beautiful places, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Three artist friends together, we made progress from May 3 to May 6. It was a nice and clear afternoon when we checked in Hyatt Carmel Highlands - Hyatt Inn.  There was an amazing sunset view overlooking Big Sur Coast from our room every dawn.  Bought enough food from Safe Way.  We cooked and ate branches, and late dinners, went out painting about six hours each day.     Weather was unpredictable, it changes dramatically all the time, from warm sunny to windy foggy in one hour.   First day wasn't easy, didn't know how to handle the fast changes.  Then started to learn and improved...  I did two watercolor paintings, one sketch on the first day. After dinner, one of the artists suggested painted another still life after I arranged our food on the table. Next day, we painted at Garrapata State Park. The rest of time we stayed at Point Lobos and we