Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Sunny day with improved air quality. Planned to paint and meet our local watercolor group, but I didn't see anyone. A possibility of being the wrong location. Never mind, morning light and shadows near the outdoor eating garden were very interesting. Experimented a limited color palette and a vertical layout. My Strada easel setup wasn't suitable for painting verticals, it was reach the maximum of the holding 15" area, and wasn't stable especially on a windy day. No wind today, getting hot near the noon. Had to move into the shade, a waiter moved away the chairs I was working on. Saw a fewer people, enjoyed the peaceful moment, and painted loosely... but not happy with the result, colors look too muddy... Just another practice work.

It was raining a bit this morning when I was driving to the location. Rain stopped and it was gray, disappointed to see the water lilies were not blooming after I was expecting to paint them since my first time painted here. I guess that could change my mood to paint. Sun came out, and it was getting hot. Then I saw water lilies started blooming, ducks swimming around, koi fish jumped out of the water once a while... Actually it was a quite clean day after weeks of polluted air. Didn't think too much but kept working on the water lilies. Got stuck and got good feedback instantly from another artist friend. Felt lucky and always enjoyed painting with other artists together. I had no idea why I painted it so dark by using Monet's color pallet, except mine was watercolor. Maybe spend too much time in all the museums I had possibly to visit all the greatest masters work. Does it mean good or bad to be Influenced by others?

The light and shadows on this church building were very interesting each time I was passing by. Painted it during a previous winter time once, there was no light that day. The air was still unhealthy, I wore the mask anyway to paint. Architecture is another category, not easy to draw perfectly, because I stood too close by. Took me quite a long time to finish the drawing. Because of the polluted air, the light wasn't strong enough to make the shadows and building contrast to each other, and the light kept moving. I really want to learn what to do with the concrete floor... tired and just another practice work. I saw it was so beautiful in the dawn, may come back again.

Very early morning, drop my husband off at the SFO domestic tunnel Because my 90ish years old father-in-law wasn't doing well, wished to see his children... I decided to paint in San Francisco. Sounded exciting, first my car GPS won't show the direction, and my Smartphone T-Mobil service wasn't connected stable. Driving in the dark on route #101, I didn't get lost dear heaven. Arrived at the location 6:40am, the street lights were still on, only saw one another on the beach. Lucky the public restroom was open and the sensor lights were turned on. Not mention it was only 50 degrees outside, I really didn't want to standing in front of the water. Around 7am, all the street lights were off, it was super gray. Started a small study, a couple runners passing by, one said "Are you going to paint the gray?" It was so true, barely saw any other colors, and it was freezing cold, even I had my winter jacket on. I kept reminding myself positively, what a great opport...

My 3d time painted at this location with an other local artist today. As usual did a small study first, took me much longer time to paint. After stepping back to view my work, I realized that there were not enough values in my work (The top one). Came home continued working on the painting (The bottom one), not sure if it has improved or not. Fall is coming, there were leaves and little branches falling on my painting and on me while I was painting today. Could see leaves started turning colors in distance. What a challenging year!

🙏Say prayers for all the people impacted by the fires in California! It looked gray, not too smoky, might be still effected by the nearby fire. Good to know that such an oriental garden exists in Silicon Valley. First time I came here, and so happy to see 10 other artists at the location and what they painted. I instantly found my spot to paint. Actually the whole garden was under major works, the pond was dry. I stood at the bottom of the pond to paint. Took me a while to do a small study, and draw the bridge, added my own water into the pond . After my painting was done, Will Maller, a very respected artist used his own made Golden radial ruler measured my work, seemed everything located by following the Golden rules. Did that mean my composition was perfect? I doubted it.... Had got some compliments from other artists. I think they were very kind and encouraged me. Later I walked further, found out a water lily pond behind, I will be back soon for sure. (August 31 2020)

Say prayers for all the people impacted by the fires in California! Do you trust your own instant feelings? I do sometimes, but I do not always to follow them. Today I was hesitated if I should paint outdoors, because there were fires in Santa Cruz Mountains and our surroundings... Everything I needed was prepared in the car, I spent a lot of time trying to search the location on the car GPS, it didn't show. I had to give it up and used the Pillar Point Harbor direction after 15 minutes search. Often there isn't a T-mobile signal in that location. On the road, I kept thinking if I should just go the the Pillar Point Harbor, since I loved to paint the boats so much. At the last turn I changed line to the beach, further drove 14 miles. There were only a few people, and a black cormorant walking on the parking lot toward to the ocean. The beach was beautiful and the air was clean. I did a quick study sketch, more people arrived. I didn't feel that I wanted to paint, back to my...

Finally, I came back to my favorite painting spot and paint my favorite subject. Did a small sketch, but I wasn't sure how I painted the background. After struggling through this old fisherman's fishing boat, I noticed that I spent too much time on boat. I started with bigger and flat brushes painted bold. Looked it worked OK. Overdressed, I had to take my down jacket off at the pier. Weather report said that it was only 60 degrees. It was quite busy, seemed that fishermen's business doing well. Overheard that salmon was about $14 per pound, I changed getting fresh fish idea, wild salmon I can get from Costco. Both ways, there were no traffic on #280. Actually I was happy experiencing the light traffic on #92, feeling everything was back to normal, I wish.

  I almost saved about 45 minutes on #101 to the location because of the pandemic and light traffic. Spent a lot of time drawing this "Harbor Patrol" boat, still I didn't get it right. I forgot that I moved a couple of times to my right so I could paint in the shade. Sun kept rising, finally I had to stand next to a big garbage bin. Took three hours to paint up to this point. I am not happy with the result of today's work, the composition and perspective bother me, but I am quite tired to fix it. My husband has working at home, going to prepare dinner earlier, not mentioned that I didn't have lunch...

It was my first time painting on location since "Shelter in Place". No traffic, great day with fresh air. I enjoyed painting outdoors and my favorite subject. Though the airplanes flying overhead made me feeling sad (I miss my family so much and I don't know when I able to visit them, especially my old mother...). Just tried my best to focus on my work. I didn't follow my study much in my painting. I feel happy now, even though my painting's result wasn't that good... So much going on and I had been feeling depressed. So many times I reminded myself I should go out and paint to avoid reading endless news I feel helpless to change. After a while, I started warning myself that I should not pay too much attention to the news. Since my family is in China... Slowly I have learned how to take better care of myself, my family and my surroundings in a new way, because I don't want to live as a victim of Covid-19, and all the madness and politics that come with. Th...