Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Sun came out in the morning, but it was wet everywhere. Painted nearby in the neighborhood. I used to paint loose, I don't have tiny point brush for the edge. Saw this large size aloe vera happily started blooming in the sun, thought that we were very lucky living in California. But why did we still feel cold in winter?

Continued raining, continued painting my new series of garden still life. Not many succulents of mine could move inside the house easily, some of them had grown quite large size, some of them in the pots which were already too heavy to carry. For example, I had brought a baby elephant succulent only a couple of inches tall when I just moved to this country, California bay area eighteen years ago. Now it had grown eight or nine feet tall at least. So I moved this small one under the roof for painting in the rain outside. Didn't do the same way painting leaf by leaf. Did I lose my patience, or just being myself?

Raining again. Brought another potted succulent inside from my garden, left a piece of baby crab shell I had found on the beach next to it, and painted another still life.  I never thought that I could paint a still life, it really challenged my patience. Most of my previous still life paintings were from my memories or imagination. During the recent practice, I started to like painting still life, especially while listening to music on a rainy winter day. Just not sure if it will be the direction for my future paintings. What do you think?

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.

Raining Sunday, painted a still-life at home. I am a little crazy about succulent plants and have collected many. Most of them I don't remember the names of. Liked the one I painted today, it grew like a chrysanthemum flower. Do you know this plant's name by any chance? I brought it in from the rain. Used a piece of clothing from my dirty laundry, so I didn't need to do extra washing, just as simple as it looked.

I knew that it was going to rain today, so I was well prepared. I couldn't paint standing up as I usually do, just because it was windy. Arrived earlier, got a chance to sketch the boat and had some wash with watercolors, then it started raining. I painted inside the car for a while. Came back home to finish this rusty fishing boat painting.

A study of my succulent in the garden. Cold weather, watercolor painting is not easy to dry...

Today the morning light on my little cacti with shadow grabbed my attention, here is my sketch. I never thought I would like sketching or painting plants. Now, I have found that I actually enjoy watching and drawing them. Painting outdoors is great, but it takes extra hour(s) on the road most of the time. I've noticed that there are so many subjects I could do just surrounding me in my daily life. I don't think I would run of painting ideas for sure, not mention my endless imagination... Paint daily is a necessary exercise, and it is very important for being an artist, don't you agree?

I've started using a new sketchbook this year. I was interested about the shadows on the staircase so I thought I'd focus on for today's subject. Did a quick drawing, then painted over with watercolors. I thought it was not a good watercolor paper, had forgotten I was only sketching, lol...

🍋This is my lovely lemon tree of nine years now. I propagated it from a one foot long branch which was in a pile of trimmings from the neighbor's tree. I could not believe that I had gotten 6 lemons at the end of the second year for a couple of following years. I learned how to trim it and changed it into a two gallons container last spring, but there were only two lemons from last year. Now, it is blooming again with a lot of flowers that brings me joy and hope each day.