Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

It is such a beautiful home and garden to visit. We came often whenever we passed by. Hadn't visited it for a long time, probably since pandemic. I always wanted to paint here too, though it was challenging, no matter how much I love plants, my reaction to pollen can bother me for days. Never mind, I told myself that I had to go. Surprisingly, there was no parking left in the morning, so I parked my car in the street. And saw many volunteers working in the garden. Most of they looked like seniors. It was not easy to find a subject to paint. So much variety, encompassing herb & rose gardens, a historic home, a carriage house & a tearoom... I walked around it twice, almost decided to paint the tearoom, because it was my first time seeing the door open, but I was fascinated by the gorgeous lotus glowing leaves in the water fountain under the morning sunlight. Immediately, I set up my workstation and started to draw. A small bird accompanied me less than ten feet away while I...

The rainy season is coming, today was another perfect day for painting out. But I didn't want to get up... started a little late, went to this lovely place to paint. I know that I have to keep practicing anyway. I painted a similar spot last winter. I remember that I overused the red and orange paints in watercolor. Today I was a little bit careful to not overpower the background scene. Got many compliments from the people passing by. I was glad that I didn't waste such a nice day.

Checked the weather report, it was going to be very windy every place I wanted to go. Went to a community Garden and painted these beautiful water Lilies inspired by Cloud Monet on such a lovely day. Good timing, the wind started getting stronger before I finished my painting. There were many activities surrounding this small pond. A lady told me that there were two turtles in it while she walked her dog passing by. Fish occasionally jumped out of water while I was looking at the water lilies. And ducks and geese landed and swam around. Dragon flies and other insects, squirrels, hummingbirds and other kinds of birds. I was happy with the result I got using high contrast and certain areas used wet into wet techniques on this painting. My watercolor palette is quite limited, I use mostly only a few colors. I like to buy unique colors, though I have very little chance to use them. Lucky, I brought some of them today, used Cobalt Violet for the base of water lily flowers, and Turquoise, b...

It was raining a bit this morning when I was driving to the location. Rain stopped and it was gray, disappointed to see the water lilies were not blooming after I was expecting to paint them since my first time painted here. I guess that could change my mood to paint. Sun came out, and it was getting hot. Then I saw water lilies started blooming, ducks swimming around, koi fish jumped out of the water once a while... Actually it was a quite clean day after weeks of polluted air. Didn't think too much but kept working on the water lilies. Got stuck and got good feedback instantly from another artist friend. Felt lucky and always enjoyed painting with other artists together. I had no idea why I painted it so dark by using Monet's color pallet, except mine was watercolor. Maybe spend too much time in all the museums I had possibly to visit all the greatest masters work. Does it mean good or bad to be Influenced by others?