Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Capitola is such a beautiful place to paint.First time painting at the location in a perfect weather condition today. I hadn't been here for a couple of years. Actually I arrived early this morning, walked around, found a lovely spot painting the windmill house across the water. There was a car that tried to drive through, the road was so narrow, I had to stop painting and squeeze all my stuff and myself against a tree, otherwise, we would all fall down the slope into the water. After a lunch break, I painted the colorful houses. I didn't know there was a big hidden garbage bin next to me for collecting all the trash from the restaurant. It was a little bit smelly. Besides, I was kind of blocking the walkway for the customers or people working there a bit. Lucky, it was not during rush hour, I didn't move much. It was already 4:15pm, but my second painting wasn't finished... Long day, I am tired. (Updating from September 20, 2018)

There was an old beautiful red barn located on Tennant Avenue, Morgan Hill. My first time painting at the location. it was over 80 degrees I believe, standing next to a mint field, smelt the fragrance of the herb, felt I was overdressed. Also the Red Barn was too big and too close to paint. After I did the first painting, I started drawing a couple of Mexican working guys collecting mints in the field through the broken plastic greenhouse window. Suddenly, they had all gone, It was noon already their lunch break. So I painted a tractor in front of the distant hills. I'm not going to share that painting here though. (Updating from September 17, 2018)

In the morning I went to Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto, CA. It was a beautiful day, felt the fall in the air. I drove around at the location, resided to paint the Bayland Ranger Station. First as usual I did a sketch, then set up my Plein Air stuff. After everything was ready, I realized that I didn't bring my watercolor paper and the support board. Mad at myself, my second time made the same mistake. Took a couple of photos on my smartphone, came home to paint this one since the light and the place I wanted to paint were still vividly in my memory. (Updating from September 13, 2018)