Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Over 100 miles and about 3 hours driving around trip, just because I was caught in a little bit traffic in the morning. Thinking to paint the lighthouse for a long time, it was too windy or it was raining... But today was a hot day. After my dental appointment, driving on windy CA highway route 84 in the hills, I really did want to arrive the Pigeon Point as early as I could. There was an SUV Volvo car in front of me driving only 15 miles/hr. I was very patient at the beginning, because usually I am a slow driver, always let most of the cars pass by me if it is possible. After a couple of miles, I realized that his brakes were on all the way, so I sent him flashing headlights since there was only one lane, with the occasional shoulders. But this guy would not let me pass. After a while, I started honking gently with flashing, he still drove very slow for miles... Finally he pulled his car on the shoulder, so I was able to arrive the location past 11am. Beautiful breezy day aroun...

Planned to paint at the The New Almaden quicksilver mine. Curious about the location when I was driving by the Casa Grande, a historic building dating back to 1824. Turned around and found a perfect shady spot to paint. It was very quiet, saw a couple cars parking there. The museum was closed. Only birds were singing loud...Saw a huge green pine cone. I had to take a selfie to compare it with my head. Still felt hot near noon...

Gorgeous morning but caught in traffic. Arrived at the location almost 10:30am. Instantly love it, another very paintable and must come back location. There were a group young age kids learning music next to where I was painting. Was fun to hear their singing, made painting go through with joy. Ended up shopping at the Stanford Shopping Center. Came home with traffic all the way too... That was why I don't like going out during rush hour.

  Excited to experience the first rain in our location, it started at least one month earlier than usual. Even raining when I drove through the mountains all the way to Santa Cruz. Local people still brought their dogs for walks in the rain. During the time I was trying to figure out where to paint rain stopped. The lighthouse again of course, because I didn't like the one painted last September. Struggling with the rocks for a long time, sun came out, the harbor looked so beautiful instantly, I had to paint another one for sure, though I felt tired. Sat down on a bench, set up my Best Brella umbrella, enjoyed the ocean breeze while working on my second painting... Suddenly, there was a strong wind that blew my umbrella out of the connecting tube, it was blown across a steep ledge and into the ocean. Almost at the same moment I put down my brush, jumped off the bench and ran down the ledge of the water. But the umbrella was sinking fast, my arm wasn't long enough to reach...

So quiet and empty, I felt lost and confused while driving on the the same road in the same town. Everywhere looks much better without traffic doesn't it? I really like this little historical place, very paintable. Did a quick sketch, but it didn't help to lock my painting into a better composition. What I enjoyed painting directly on the paper with my watercolor brush without drawing, so my painting came out loose. Happy Labor Day! Hard to believe it is the beginning of September already. Hope everyone enjoy today and have a great month!

Add caption Another interesting new place I went to paint that used to be a horse ranch owed by the McClellan family in the 1930s, and still preserves the original ranch house, a working milk barn, livestock barn, and a replica blacksmiths shop, along with a natural reserve in the middle of the park. So many new ideas for painting, could not manage all in one small outdoor work. My inspiration is from nature, painting outdoors helps me feeling meditative and alive, though I usually am exhausted after it all.

Started a little late. There wasn't a real nice spot for me to paint this bridge. Some people exercising on the trial, running, biking, walking... It was a good exercise for me moving my stuff around to paint, sunshine was too bright on the paper. I really have to get ready for Alameda Plein Air event, no doubt! But my allergies are killing me these days.

The Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum is adjacent to the 10 acre Orchard Heritage Park where about 800 trees were laden with ripe delicious Blenheim apricots. I didn't know this lovely place until today. Seemed that there was a big harvest of apricots, there were a couple workers delivered buckets of apricots to the those were making dry apricot fruit by hands. It was very interesting watching the process while I was painting in the middle of Silicon Valley, hard to believe certain people still working in very traditional way here, like me in this high tech area. I must come back and paint again.

Back to my local Plein Air life. It was a lovely breezy day. Both Google maps on my smartphone and the car GPS could not get signals near the location. I told myself that I should always double check my stuff before go out to paint many times, but I forgot to bring the part that connects the tripod and the easel, had to set up and paint on the ground.. What an adorable retirement life for those who were living there, I thought! How would I make it to such a gorgeous place being an artist? LOL🤣...Did a small drawing and a painting. Quite place, will be back again. Maryknoll is a magnificent building easily visible from I-280 just north of the Foothill Expressway Exit. It was built in 1926 as a Catholic seminary for students preparing to enter the Maryknoll order, a Catholic society dedicated to missionary work in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the mid 1970’s it was converted to a residence for retired Brothers. The architecture contains Spanish mission, Baroque, and Oriental inf...

Between the end of May and the early of June of 2019, I joined one of the international Plein Air groups organized by professional Chinese artists. It was located in southern China in a 2,500 year old, ancient Canal-town near Suzhou, call Luzhi 甪直. Several great artists were invited to do demos and lectures. About 40 artists attended, most of them were Chinese professional artists. The event also included some American and Australian artists Billyo O'Donnell, Joseph Mcgurl and Kasey Sealy. We painted, listened to demos and lectures in the evening, ate food and partied for te days... We had a great time together, exchanged knowledge, not only about Plein Air, but also art and history, etc.. Food was great, we had more than 12, sometime 15 dishes each lunch and dinner, and meals included wine and beer. It was the first trip to China for Billy, Joseph and Kasey. Weather was nice and a little bit steamy, but it was gray most of time when we were there. There was one watercolor dem...