Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Went to Portola Vineyard, my car GPS still directed me to the wrong spot, had to make a three-point turn on such a narrow road. Glad that I went there and met several other artists. Except for one artist who was at the Alameda Plein Air Paint Out last week, the others I hadn't seen for a long time. My subject was the pool house, because the grape vines have not changed colors yet. It was nice to see other artists, and make a little progress as well, though I felt burnt out after Alameda Plein Air event. (August 10 2022)

08/18/2021 Went to paint at the same location twice in one week. Last week it was hot, I focused on painting the barn and winery. Today was gorgeous, I saw a blue tractor that was interesting, instantly decided to paint it. The owner was very kind to allow us to paint there. Two years ago I painted the fall feeling grapes and vines. Spent a little big longer time for the drawing, actually I really didn't care much for the details, but ended up there was plenty of details in my work. Think I did better last week, and played with the dog after. Not today, I added the dog into my painting later.  Nice practice again!  Which one do you prefer? 08/25/2021

(April 16 2021) Nice and quiet morning at the location. I found a spot to set up, it was a little bit too close, but it was the angle I wanted. Didn't know it was one of the busiest days of the week again. More cars brought in more customers later to this beer garden. A young guy Kyle worked and guided all the cars for parking, he stood next to me most of the time. We had a little talk that he was in his freshman year in a college. Kyle was friendly and polite, kept telling me that my painting looked realistic to him, he even took a video to share with his friend. Finally he asked me how many years I had been painting, coincidentally his age was the same as my years painting, about nineteen years. Might be his and some people's encouragement all together, I thought I did better than usual. Definitely I will be back to paint again.

First time I came to this location to paint this weekend. My husband joined so he could hike. Happened to meet up with a weekend Plein Air group painting at the same place. Beautiful day, spring has finally arrived. Good thing that I finished a small sketch and the drawing before more people arrived. Didn't know how popular this place was! Even though we all still had masks on, it was very busy, seemed like no COVID-19 existed there. Saw a customer arriving on horseback, it really brought me back to over 160 year ago when the restaurant was just founded.  But only the person wore the modern cloths. And then a truck blocked my painting subject for quite a long time. Limited my color palette. Will surely come back again to paint, but not on a weekend.  -- March 27

Nov. 10 Drove through a winding road, to arrive at this beautiful vineyard in the Portola Valley. Found a quiet corner to paint. There were no grapes left on the vines. Not sure why there were less colors than last year during the same month. I think I overdid the painting. I tried to stop twice, almost packed my stuff away, than had to bring my brushes out again... I really should stop at the first time my instant feeling told me. Watercolor is not the tolerant media if the over paint. Another day of practicing.

My first time to paint this gorgeous hidden winery. After the owner Vivian showed us around with her friendly, four-year old super active border collie dog, I decided to paint grapes hanging on the vines, actually left on the vines. It was quite hot in the sun, I had to use my umbrella though it was only 45 degrees before I left home in the morning. This cute dog was sitting not far from me, one of his paws sat on small sticks. Of course I understood all he wanted was to find a way to play. I tried focusing to my painting. After a while, he lost his patience and started barking. Couldn't stop at the moment, watercolors dried on paper so fast, I had to continue... Roughly finished, on the way back to my car, I saw him was all wet, just swam or did something fun in the pond I guessed. I picked up a small tree branch from the ground, didn't throw away very far, than I found a small piece of wood chips to throw. He was so happy to pick it up, and carried it inside his mouth runni