Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

A gorgeous day to join the Plein Air event hosted by the California Watercolor Association(CWA) yesterday. We met in the lovely town Danville and took a shuttle bus to America's only Nobel Prize winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill's house. He chose to live in Northern California at the height of his writing career. Honestly, I haven't read his plays yet, and it was my first visit to this charming town. I thought that I only had less than two hours of painting time to catch on the returning shuttle. I was in a rush to my first site of this historical barn for a fast drawing, then painting... I knew I wouldn't have time for second layers, so had to use a stronger and thinker colors from my palette. Suddenly I heard the shuttle bus starting the engine, actually there were other visitors wanted to go back, so they were leaving earlier. I rushed to pack my stuff and ran onto the bus, while my painting was still wet. I never thought that 14"x11" could be done l...

Painting could be fun and meaningful. A couple of friends we hadn't seen each other for a long time decided to have a vegetarian potluck Plein Air party today. We chatted and had lunch together until the rain stopped, but it was still very cold. Luckily I brought my down jacket with me this morning. I had it on the whole time I was there. We had great time, surely will do it again.

It started a grey day, went to this paintable ranch, felt chilly. Did a small study sketch, it didn't help me for some reason. Well, I guessed that it was one of the days I just could not paint, two paintings in a row all failed. Sun came out, walked around the property, took some photos, young cows nearby looking at me. One goat mom with two kids they were calling each other... A wonderful Californian ranch life, the moment inspired me to paint the third one, and I added the goats into it after came home. (May 6 2019)

Met another local Plein Air artist at the convention last week. So we decided to come to this beautiful location painting together in a very pleasant morning. I gave my new QoR watercolor paint another try. The white wisteria were in bloom. Did a very high contrast dark and light impressionist painting. Have found out a little more about the differences in these new paints. I'll be back to paint at this spot for sure, just love the peacefulness here.

Nice day but windy. Drove through a very winding road, my first time at this location. Found a spot in the shade, felt chilly while painting. Relocated the objects on the paper for a better composition. Tried these QoR paints, my work came out grayish and muddy. Judy did a beautiful glowing California landscape in oil. She said to me that it was always hard trying new paints. It did help me feeling better a bit. So I used limited watercolor pens did a quick color sketch. There were only over 30 miles each way, but I felt so tired and barely drove back home through a much narrow and winding road. It took me over an hour. Many times I thought I was lost, because both my smartphone and the car GPS didn't talk for a long time. Can't believe that time flies so fast, May already. Viewing today's work, wondering if I should stop trying the new paints...

Gorgeous day, surprised that it was not crowded with such inspiring scenery on a Sunday, though it was a bit windy. Struggled to paint the rocks. Suddenly a young boy jumped next to me and he told me my painting was amazing. That always feels encouraging when an artist was trying to figure out what to do. Wind was getting stronger, the waves started to splash onto my easel and me, which I took as a message to stop.  (April 21 2019)

I don't even remember when was my last visit to the beautiful Hakone Estate and Garden. Especially on a lovely spring day to see all the gorgeous plants blooming. Actually it was quite hot in the sun, 74 degrees, I was fully covered and tried not get pollen attacks, but it was not possible. Used my brush and color palette, to express my feelings about the moment using an impressionist style onto the paper. Keep practicing both my visual language and my 2nd language. I painted myself into this painting. Can you find the figure?

Saturday April 13, California Watercolor Association organized to paint out at the park on the Earth Day weekend, otherwise I wouldn't know about this place and drove more than 70 miles to come. Very pleasant spring weather, I was instantly attracted by the surroundings after short greetings with other artists, I painted an old falling apart house in the morning. After a lunch break, the volunteers and a docent Ed Lai - one of the founders - gave us a very knowledgeable introduction to China Camp where there used to be about 500 Chinese people living, running a shrimp-fishing business in the village started in nineteen centuries... Part of history was cruel, just liked many Chinese labors who built the railways in old days here. Mr. Lei's eyes turned red with tears, so did mine... The rest of afternoon I did another painting, but felt very emotional, thought about all immigrants' life, who hadn't gone through all the low-paid, longer hours work, racial unfairly...

What a gorgeous day came back to paint, though it was windy and chilly. There were a couple of beautiful pine trees and surrounding rocks on the edge of the cliffs were beautiful, especially under the morning light. I was so focused on my work, constantly stopped, backed up to view how I did... Once I backed up a little further, suddenly I noticed that I was standing on the very edge of the cliff, lucky me that I didn't fall, lol... Yesterday I planned to paint at Pigeon's Point Lighthouse, but the weather report indicated very strong winds there, so I didn't go. Then I went to San Jose area, found a historical warehouse I wanted to paint, but there were three small dogs barking next to me endlessly, I had to give it up...  (April 10 2019

My first time came to this park to paint. Planned it for weeks, but there was a chance of rain. Kept checking on the location's weather, finally I made it. Such a beautiful place, there were docks and boats. Though there was some work going on in the park, and there were frequent airplanes flying overhead, I didn't notice. Happy to meet new people. Will be back to paint for sure. It started raining when I was leaving. Not mention there is traffic all day long on Route 101...