Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Rainy season is over, and I should catch up on outdoor painting. Downtown Cambell is one of my favorite places to do Plein Air, at lease I painted here or nearby about ten times so far. Painted with a group of local artists, I took the spot I painted several years ago at the beginning of my oil Plein Air. Sat on a bench in front of Starbucks, I didn't do a small sketch this time. Also I was able to see my car, which was parked in a two-hour parking zone, in case I couldn't finish my work on time. I would have to move my car. Weather suddenly got warm, felt like it went from winter tempretures to summer overnight. It was a good exercise for outdoor painting. (April 22 2024)

We had a couple days of rain which is not good for Plein Air. But I definitely appreciate the rain because of the shortage of water in California. The rain stopped and the clouds were very beautiful. I drove to the Sunnyvale train station, and could not find a suitable place to paint a landscape with the clouds and some building. Suddenly, I saw a water tower with interesting buildings surrounding it. Parked my car, it looked like a big factory. The water tower against the clouds looked very interesting. Set up my station and started drawing. A black security guy came to me asked what I was doing. I told him that I wanted to paint the water tower. etc. He asked me to move, because I was on the private property. I moved my station to the public walkway. Overheard him reporting back to his team that I was drawing the tower. Guessed it was OK after he left. Several workers were on their lunch break, they came by and gave me some compliment on my work. I was curious to see their name bad...

Decided to paint the downtown cityscape, went to and painted at the same spot where I painted when I just started Plein Air. Could not find the original image from back then.  Today was a little chilly, but felt warm in sun. I saw a lot of people in the street and some stopped by and gave me more compliments for my painting then I expecting, might be during the holiday season... Good exercise.  It was the first one I did outdoors this month, hopefully it isn't the last one of this year, but it will rain next week. (December 17 2021)