Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

2020 Day31 Today is the last day of the Strada Easel 31-day challenge to paint from life. The day before I felt overwhelmed, so only did a watercolor still-life sketch as the last piece #31 of the challenge today. Forgive my daily post, hopefully not a bother for you. I tried to be polite and not post too often but in this case it was a daily requirement. Thank you so much for your feedback, comments, likes and shares. I appreciate your support and encouragement to help me make it through. It was a necessary experience, especially for me to make personal progress, not because being a full-time artist to create art, and think through which area I should focus on depending on my own interests. I think it is important being an artist to create art and also to inspire others or to be inspired. I will continue sharing some my work and stories behind my work, and practice in English my second language. Happy painting!

2020 Day17 The Kitchen God is the most important of many Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family. I am not sure that it is a religion or if it is just folklore. Our Chinese culture believes that on the twenty third day of the last lunar month, just before Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God(灶君) returns to Heaven to report all the activities of every household over the past year to Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor(玉皇大帝). The Jade Emperor, emperor of the heaven, who either rewards or punishes a family based on Kitchen God's annual report. Anyway, there are only few days each year we could see snow on top of the distant mountains at our location. It was a beautiful and cold day. Staying at home I painted another still-life. The mouse pot holder I found out the other day was made of silicone rubber. I bought another squash just because I loved the colors. So I made my still-life more fun looking, and hoping it will usher in a happy year of the rat.  At the same time I...

Add caption 2020 Day15 40% chance to rain, then I decided to stay at home. Thought I could paint my aloe vera, but I just discovered they were so sick from the rain without sun. It was one of my most favorite plants, and I used it so many times to recover from sunburns, cuts or cooking burns. I felt bad that I didn't take good care of my plant, though most of them were succulents. Spent an hour or two to clean up. Tried not to upset myself. Then I found a rat pot holder I bought sometime ago that I forgot about it. The Year of Rat is coming in 10 days. Did a watercolor black and white sketch before starting to use it.

2020 Day8 What a busy day staying at home! Thought about how to create an auspicious work for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - the Year of Rat. Actually I had been thinking about it since last Christmas. I used to be very good and fast when I worked as a graphic/web designer a long time ago... I had forgotten how much I had to go through with the design process, it made my head ache. Focused on the limited items I had, using traditional colors, meaningful symbols, and symmetrical layout. I enlarged an ancient coin, which means prosperity, wrote Fu, Lu, Shou and Xi, those mean Luck, Prosperity, Longevity and Happiness on the coin in an ancient writing style. I only had one little rat, so I drew one, then flipped it to draw it again on the other side, made them look like they are communicating to each other by changing the shapes slightly, so one looks like a male, the other a female. They could be a couple, lovers or love at first sight. My most challenging part was to draw tw...

2020 Day5 Tried to create another one for the upcoming Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat. Just a watercolor wash. Still thinking, will continue trying a couple more ideas...

2020 Day3 I thought I should create a piece for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat by the auspicious symbols in our culture. I just don't want to copy the stuff I have. Spent hours in the afternoon, but the painting looked like this... I tried to think positively how I could improve the painting. Any suggestions?

I would love to introduce some Chinese symbols to my viewers through my paintings. Here is a still life I painted entitled "Sunflowers and Lizard". Lizard (蜥蜴 or 壁虎; ) Lizards tend to be active at night. For that reason the ancients felt that they were symbolic of protection from the hidden things in life. So a lizard is more than an animal it is a symbol of luck and vision. Lizards are also fast on their feet and can escape predators much larger than themselves. Ancestors said and noted these special qualities. Ruyi (如意; rúyì) What this means in Chinese is "as one wishes you wish". A ruyi is a long curved ceremonial sceptre used in Chinese Buddhism that symbolizes power and good fortune in countless Chinese stories. It can take the shape of a lingzhi mushroom, a cloud, a first or other representation that symbolizes power. There are nearly 3000 ruyi that are variously made from valuable materials like gold, silver, iron, bamboo, wood, ivory, coral, rhinoceros ...

Hope my Chinese symbol study which I created this painting with could bring a great deal of positive aspects into your lives.  It contains a number of auspicious symbols including: one turtle, two butterflies and a pair of chairs (a couple of lovers), three Star Gods, three Mandarins, and Nine Chrysanthemum flowers in one vase. Hope my explanation of these symbols could help viewers to understand the meaning, and bring health, happiness and prosperity into your daily lives. Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) Three Star Gods (fulushou 福禄寿) symbols are on the vase - The Three Star Gods are the God of Fortune (fuxing 福星), God of Prosperity (luxing 祿星) and God of Longevity (shouxing 寿星), each recognizable by the characteristic iconography. They are often represented together. Vase (花瓶) Because of the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace", vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual pea...

Chrysanthemum often called mums or chrysanths, are perennial flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae which are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. It is one of the longevity or strengthened symbols in Chinese culture, which signify long lasting and has durability. Thus Love, success, commitments, luck - what you wish could last forever can be augmented by displaying these beautiful autumn flowers. Vases are exceptionally auspicious symbols to have around the house since they signify "perpetual peace and harmony in the home". This is because the phonetic sound of the vase is "ping' which also means "peace". The vase is also one of the eight auspicious signs of Buddhism being one of the objects found on the footprints of Buddha. One of the most popular words that is frequently rendered in calligraphy is the word that means Longevity. When the characters that are written are also auspicious words, those are usually regar...

Magpies are believed to be one of the most intelligent of all animals. In Chinese culture, the magpie is an auspicious bird (the opposite of the crow) which has been depicted in art and literature for thousands of years of history. Magpies appear in the most happy events, representing positive energy for new years celebrations, festivals, birthdays, marriages, anniversaries, and any good news, etc.. I designed "Magpie Singing at the Bath" by adding many auspicious symbolic items, like bamboo (longevity, the spirit of scholars), water(prosperity, opportunity, wealth), and full moon (joyful reunion, especially for family and lovers) against the auspicious red/orange colors in the background expressing good luck, or good news coming from hearing the singing of a magpie, or even better seeing one. February 10, 2012 is the first day of lunar year of the Snake. Chinese usually begin the day by offering prayers and welcoming the gods of heaven and earth. Everyone tries to get there ...