Yangzi Xu

Wacker Drive in the Rain, Oil Painting

2022

Artist Comments
Artist Yangzi Xu depicts an iconic view of LaSalle Street in Chicago, facing south from the bridge. She rendered this piece in a warm muted palette, setting the stage to highlight sporadic lights and reflections on wet concrete. "My focus was to convey the mood and feeling a rainy day brings to my beloved city," shares Yangzi.

About the Artist
Artist Yangzi Xu captures a nostalgia for Chicago and its dramatic seasonal changes in her expressionist cityscapes. Having a full-time job and being a wife and mother, Yangzi makes a habit of painting everyday to keep her passion exciting and fresh. She keeps a queue of ideas and reference photos that she takes throughout the year. She looks through her references, tweaks and adds elements to them. Once inspiration strikes, Yangzi draws several sketches and begins to work with oils on canvas on multiple pieces at once - to keep each painting spontaneous and new. "I try to capture the paradox of life in the city, where one can be in a crowd and yet feel alone," Yangzi says. "My main intent is not to capture the physical reality of a scene, but to express my own moods and feelings to my audience." In her free time, Yangzi enjoys reading, with her current favorite genres being biographies and memoirs. Yangzi is an alumnus of DePaul University in Chicago.

Words that describe this painting: Chicago, La Salle...

Artist Comments
Artist Faye Vander Veer depicts a cozy rainy evening in the city. "You can almost hear the sound of the tires as the traffic moves along the wet pavement," says Faye. Drizzly street scenes are among her favorite subjects to portray. She paints reflected headlights and other ambient lighting to give a feeling of warmth and calm.

About the Artist
Artist Faye Vander Veer seeks out moments with engaging narratives and captures them with an impressionist style. Her dramatic use of color, texture, light and shadow lend a glowing quality, creating an energy all their own. While using her own photographs as a general reference, it is her sensory memory of the event and her emotional reaction that is conveyed on the canvas, causing the viewer to be transported to another time and place. “Painting becomes a language I use to express my emotional response to what is before me and share my experience of the subject with others,“ says Faye.

Words that describe this painting: impressionism, cityscape, city, San Francisco, architecture, nocturne, rain, cars, pedestrians, buildings, lights, Mark League, street, road, facade, evening, cab, taxi, street light, oilpaint, reflection, travel, architecture, impressionism, travel, oil painting, blue

Evening Rain...