Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

A long term friend of my husband's invited us over to stay during this memorial weekend in Sonoma county. They bought a 20 acre property in Cloverdale 10 years ago, and moved in a couple years back. They love the country lifestyle and fit into it so well. We live in a suburban area. It is hard to imagine the hard work and many projects that have to be done out there. After our personal tour, we were super impressed by their great clean up job and endless efforts. Michele is a fabulous cook, and she is fond of Julia Child so we were in for a treat. We enjoyed her cooking, barbecued food, and her husband Raul's cocktail refreshments. We ate, hiked, wine tasted, watched TV shows, watched birds visiting all of their feeders, played games, chatted and laughed as we caught up on years of friendship. During our visit, I had a little time to squeeze in two very fast works. One was of the corner of their house, I saw the beautiful light coming through the fence in the morning

Planned to go further today, but the news report said that coivd-19 infected numbers increased dramatically. I thought I should stay at home and maybe clean up my garden. Then the temperature went all the way up to 70 degrees, I thought what a waste of a perfect, beautiful winter day for painting outdoors. I drove around and found two almost identical houses next to each other. What attracted me was the shadow from the tree traced on the yellow house as a background. But my painting was not big enough to show the details. Good exercise to paint a residential house. Usually all the leaves on the trees block the full view of houses. Today, I spent a lot of time and tried to understand how each part of the house connected together. In the end, I had to break up the fences to make my painting not looking monotonous. A lovely afternoon being outdoors and painting!  (Jan 14 2021)

Not a rainy day, sun came out around noon. What attracted to me was the light and shadows of this house. I guessed that there was nobody at home, the dog barked like crazy... Tried a couple of times, I couldn't tell this neighborhood that I just came to paint, so I had to give up. I brought my stuff back to the car, suddenly the dog stopped barking. All right, I painted inside my car, though I wasn't in the right position to paint, but I did it and retouched a little bit more after got home.

Being an artist not living in my motherland, family has become the most tender treasure hidden deep inside my heart! Every single door I pass by has brought me so much imagination and curiosity unconsciously. And creativity craftsmanship stimulates my artistic sensibilities. Some of them witness centuries of history and others wear the character of the natural disasters they have lived through, making them all the more interesting to share. This gallery is full of documentary images in which I focus on the doors and door decor, including some windows that caught my eye, especially in the different cultures I have been exposed to. (Please click the image to enlarge) In Peru, there were so many beautiful craftsmanship work. I would love to share some of my captures. Welcome to visit my Door And Window Collection Art Gallery: http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/art/all/photography+-+door+and+window+collection/all "The doors of wisdom are never shut." ― Benjamin Frankl