Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

2020 Day8 What a busy day staying at home! Thought about how to create an auspicious work for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - the Year of Rat. Actually I had been thinking about it since last Christmas. I used to be very good and fast when I worked as a graphic/web designer a long time ago... I had forgotten how much I had to go through with the design process, it made my head ache. Focused on the limited items I had, using traditional colors, meaningful symbols, and symmetrical layout. I enlarged an ancient coin, which means prosperity, wrote Fu, Lu, Shou and Xi, those mean Luck, Prosperity, Longevity and Happiness on the coin in an ancient writing style. I only had one little rat, so I drew one, then flipped it to draw it again on the other side, made them look like they are communicating to each other by changing the shapes slightly, so one looks like a male, the other a female. They could be a couple, lovers or love at first sight. My most challenging part was to draw tw...

2020 Day7 Over an hour driving instead of thirty minutes on 101 this morning. Sunny day, came to one of my favorite spots to paint boats. There were clouds, air planes flying overhead, boats, birds and reflections in the water, trees and mountains in distance... I thought a boat on the ground being fixed was an interesting subject. Tried wet into wet technique. I know it is one of the tougher parts to master - using the right amount of water to paint spontaneously. I was happy with the study result. Mike, who was fixing the boat, told me that boat would be here next week. So I think I will be back to paint it again next week. Hopefully it only rains during the evening time, California needs it🌧.

2020 Day6 Came to the Saint Clare Parish, we used to live nearby. It is a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California, but is located in Santa Clara, California. Looked like good weather, The winter sun shone on the church wall making it super-white and contrasted the blue sky. But it was really cold in the morning. Took me longer to finish the drawing. I didn't used the wet into wet technique to paint, otherwise the Fabriano Artistico Extra White Watercolor paper I used could not be dry fast enough in the shade on a day like today. Cars passing by, I only saw a few people walking in the street. One young guy on his skateboard skating by told me that my work was great in a very positive voice. Another person drove by opened his window and asked me where the Mission was. It was a quiet place. Do you know that artist mostly live the life of solitude?

2020 Day5 Tried to create another one for the upcoming Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat. Just a watercolor wash. Still thinking, will continue trying a couple more ideas...

2020 Day4 We bought this simple coffee espresso maker at least fifteen years ago. I painted it, because I was inspired by Keiko Tanabe' s demo a couple of months ago at our location. Her source was a local car wash, had the misty atmosphere which she recreated. It was a great idea! And finally I did this watercolor sketch by seeing my husband making coffee where the steam came out around the cup, which he bought recently from Starbucks Christmas sale. Just because he loved the cup had fox painted on it and it made him happy. I can not drink coffee nor tea, I mean the good quality ones. I tried thousands of times and ended up to just upset my stomach. Because I couldn't stand the tempting smells, had to experience the taste since I was young. Strong flavor or light fragrant coffee, green tea or black, you name them... Getting older, married to a guy who cannot live cannot coffee nor tea every day. He has to have them all super-strong too.

2020 Day3 I thought I should create a piece for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat by the auspicious symbols in our culture. I just don't want to copy the stuff I have. Spent hours in the afternoon, but the painting looked like this... I tried to think positively how I could improve the painting. Any suggestions?

2020 Day2 Have you been to the Red Barn at Stanford? Do you know it was a horse farm that produced champion racehorses before Stanford became a world class university? My first time visiting and painting at the location. It was a beautiful day, I brought a very young Chinese artist friend with me. We met at a watercolor event in Shanghai where she was from last year. She came to visit her relatives in Silicon Valley. She told me that it was her first time being so close to real horses. The barns were very clean and well-organized, and the horses were gentle and well trained. I painted one landscape, she did a couple of sketches. I took a selfie with a super cooperated horse, seemed that she really enjoyed posing, lol... We learned that now the Stanford Red Barn is home to the Stanford Equestrian Team, the Stanford Red Barn Equestrian Center, and their affiliated programs. Definitely I will be back to paint again for sure.

Happy New Year! 新年快樂!  How was your New Year day? 2020 Day1 Gave myself a couple days off before the New Year, studied about art history. Today was gray, I came to the location to paint my favorite subject boats. Saw many people walking on the Harbor, some of them bought crabs from the local fishermen. It started sprinkling, so I had to do my work inside the car. The fishing boat I worked on was very interesting, but it wasn't easy to do... I did a drawing, a watercolor sketch. And brought a crab for our dinner table for celebrating the first day of 2020.

A gorgeous sunny warm day after the rains. First time at this location. I love plants, and it was not easy to me to start painting. Had to remind myself many times that I was here to paint, not shopping for plants. Then I decided to paint this large blue pot with a 'natives" sign inside the pot. Love this blue color, and all the native plants surrounding it. Didn't remember any of those names... Do you love plants?

Rainy day I didn't get up as early as usual. Checked my messages in bed, an artist invited me to Plein Air together. Weather report showed there was no rain between 10am and 3pm. I jumped out of bed, had a simple, quick breakfast and drove to the location. Paid $6 for parking just to save time. Usually I'd rather park in the street and walk into the park. Unfortunately I forgot my tripod, funny thing I thought about to leave an extra tripod in my car last night, but I didn't... I used my car trunk as a temporary table to work on the painting. Beautiful sunlight. There were colorful fall leaves on the trees and on the ground. Didn't prepare for the rain, soon it started raining. I tried to continue, but the rain fell down heavily. Well, I had to leave the park, not get enough time to justify the parking fee, but luckily I parked inside the park, otherwise I would have been soaked, lol...