Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

A quiet Friday morning.  Came to paint sunflowers. Remembered that I painted at the same garden in winter. Now there are more plants, many of them blooming. But I know that I came for the sunflowers. Met the lady that worked there, her name was Rachal. She was doing great job which attracted me to come back. Actually it is not a good idea for me to paint too near many flowers. My eyes hurt and my nose was running, but I did it, and moved the objects around a bit to make a more pleasing composition.  (June 11 2021)

Lovely sunny day in Half Moon Bay. Set up my easel on a wine barrel and painted the grapevines in front of me. Another artist was sketching, of course she had became part of my painting. Lucky I painted the water fountain last time. Now, several Mexican guys were working on that area. Standing next to the them, I could hear the happy music they were listening to, and their conversation, though I had no idea what they said in Spanish, sounded very positive. So I painted it with a joyful and gorgeous environment. (June 9 2021)

I didn't plan to paint at Pigeon Point, instead of going to meet other artists at Pescadero Village. Driving on the Highway #280, listening to the Mozart's Piano #21 in C concerto on the Classical music channel KDFC. I enjoyed the scene so much, especially on such a gorgeous day, white clouds floating on the blue sky, there were dry golden yellow, bold hills against the blue and white. Clouds here are precious, we usually don't see them for half the year. Thinking of how beautiful the state is that I live in! It took very long time to like it here, I believed that I had started to love California after I learned to Plein Air. Four years now, and I had found out so many unique and beautiful places nearby, felt very grateful... I had to turn the radio off for not hearing the clear sound and kept driving... I only saw a few cars, seemed like I was the only one driving on the Highway #1. And my car GPS told me that I arrived at Pigeon Point. Well I decided to walk around...

 Many stories about grandparents, mostly about grandmas.  I was busy sketching while others were telling the old day's stories.  Some of them had photos to share.  How grateful we all have had a lot of memories, hopefully them are always sweet and stored away in our brains.  Another great day to meet with others and practice drawing.

A gorgeous day, went to Shoreline Park to meet other watercolor artists and paint together. Arrived at the Rengstorff House, there was a graduation party going on. Found a shady spot, set up my work station, then I found out that I didn't bring any watercolor paper. Haha, I was wondering why my gear bag was a slightly lighter in weight this morning.  So, I only completed my sketch.   Came back home and decided to organize my art supplies a little bit, those always occupy so much space.  I needed to find out if I have to buy more materials for Alameda Paintout Event coming up in August.  I would have plenty of  time to order online learning from my previous lessons.  Surprised to see a couple of my very old sketches.  They brought back memories, some of them were the doodles of my commissioned works. One of those I wrote down in "7 2006".  It was hard to believe about fifteen years already.  I still had my job working back then....

Dressed very warm to paint at this lovely winery, because it was only 50ish degrees. Looked like a lovely garden with beautiful blooming flowers. Found the subject and a spot, I talked a little loud that I wished the sun would come up, so I could capture the contrast of the light and shadow in the landscape. But my painting spot wasn't in the shade,  and when the sun really came out, it shone onto my extra white Fabiano Artistico 140b Cold press watercolor paper. I had to follow the light to keep moving. After I moved under a tree, the sun hid under clouds. Back and forth a couple of times, it might be the sun was playing game with me since I asked for it? Such a nice place, and I wanted to come and paint for a long time each time I was passing by on the way to Half Moon Bay. Certainly, I will be back soon again. (June 2 2021) I went to the same location to Plein Air again a week later, they had the major construction going on surround the fountain...

After the Memorial day long weekend, I planned to paint at Pescadero, but it did not happen. Came to the Mission Branch Library in Santa Clara. Remembered that I painted here in the afternoon last winter and pulled out the old photo. Today I painted this scene from a 90 degree different angle, and in the shade of the morning. I was totally in the sun so soon, before I even finished my drawing. Kept moving to my left side, wondered if I would bother the residents inside the building. Instead, a couple of young guys came out and gave me a few compliments. I think  they study at Santa Clara University. Practiced not overdoing the painting and made sure my work looked painterly and loose. ( June 1 2021 ) November 30 2020, Plein Air  @ Mission Branch Library City of Santa Clara CA

  Monday Sketch on Zoom has become one of my favorite activities since the pandemic. I always enjoy drawing people's faces with different characters. One good thing about a professional model is that they are trained not to move and can stay super-still, including their facial expression. But it isn't easy to express their characters through drawings. That is one of reasons that I love drawing regular people, especially with their emotion showing while talking about their life stories. The challenging part is that they cannot stay still, always move around, and minute drawing doesn't allow for too many mistakes, it has to be done correctly in a very short time. That is another reason why my visual brain and listening part need to be better connected.  (May 31 2021)

A long term friend of my husband's invited us over to stay during this memorial weekend in Sonoma county. They bought a 20 acre property in Cloverdale 10 years ago, and moved in a couple years back. They love the country lifestyle and fit into it so well. We live in a suburban area. It is hard to imagine the hard work and many projects that have to be done out there. After our personal tour, we were super impressed by their great clean up job and endless efforts. Michele is a fabulous cook, and she is fond of Julia Child so we were in for a treat. We enjoyed her cooking, barbecued food, and her husband Raul's cocktail refreshments. We ate, hiked, wine tasted, watched TV shows, watched birds visiting all of their feeders, played games, chatted and laughed as we caught up on years of friendship. During our visit, I had a little time to squeeze in two very fast works. One was of the corner of their house, I saw the beautiful light coming through the fence in the morning...

🙏Say a prayer for those killed at the shooting in San Jose today! Planned to paint at Pigeon Point Lighthouse for a while now. Because it is always super-windy, I kept checking weather report, my instincts told me many times not to go. Quickly checked it again this morning and it was OK to paint during my usual Plein Air hours. First my car wasn't fully charged, but i had enough juice to cover the miles. Loaded my painting gear into car. Then my car GPS directed me to an unusual way, seemed a little bit further. It was not a big deal. Only myself driving on the dappled sunlit road, I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful redwood trees. Only a person in front of me drove super slow later, and I had to pass by when I had the chance. Enjoyed the magnificent ocean scenery. Finally, got into a big line waiting for the road work only 2.8 miles before arriving at the Lighthouse. No matter how much I wanted to start my painting earlier, I had to wait patiently... It was cold and windy, only ...