Half PB&J by Darren Maurer

12" x 12"
This is one of my all time favorite subjects to paint. When I'm out and about I am always asked several times a day, "What are you working on?" I love the look on people's faces when I respond, "I'm working on a painting of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." They always ask me again as if they didn't hear me correctly. Painting Available.

Sunflower by Darren Maurer

36" x 36"

I have been working on this piece for awhile. My oldest daughter repainted her bedroom this past summer and used a family of warm yellows for the color. She asked if I could paint a sunflower for her and hang above the head board of the bed? I told her that I would love to paint something for her and began thinking of ideas almost immediately. She has always been fond of sunflowers anyway so this is the perfect subject. A few years back she grew several sunflowers from seeds and ended up naming them all and giving them different personalities . Most of the names were of people we knew which made it even more fun. This will be one of the final touches on the room remodel. My younger daughter has always noticed sunsets. She was pointing out amazing sunsets almost before she could talk. I am going to paint another 36" x 36" sunset painting for her.

The gallery in Milwaukee has asked me to stay and show work full time. The still life show I participated in during July, August, and September was a success and they sold all of the large paintings which is good news for an artist. We have discussed a few ideas for subject matter and I will start painting on those pieces next.

Sioux City Art Center Exhibit

I was fortunate to have been asked to show some of my work at the Sioux City Art Center recently. They wanted to present an exhibit of all five of my original Iowa Duck Stamp paintings and the two Artist of the Year paintings completed for Iowa Ducks Unlimited. The paintings will be on display at the Art Center until September 18th. If you are close by I invite you to stop in and see the paintings. This is a rare opportunity to see all five original winners at the same time since all five usually are not together. In addition to the duck stamp pieces there are two other award winning paintings on display. They are larger paintings and helped me to be named the Iowa Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year twice, once in 2007 and again in 2010. There are several other waterfowl paintings included in the show also.

Hooded Merganser - by Darren Maurer

11"x 14"

Every year our local nature center, the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, has a fund raiser titled "Nature Calls". This year's event will take place on Saturday, September 24th beginning at 6:00pm. Local artists are invited to sell their work during an evening event which consists of light hor d'oeuvres, beer tasting, and a charity auction benefiting the nature center. I am donating this original oil painting for the live charity auction.

Donating original paintings for an auction is something I have rarely done since becoming known for my waterfowl paintings. Although I donate artwork several times a year for charitible causes, I usually limit my donations to one of my duck stamp prints along with a signed mint stamp. This will be only the second time I have donated an "original" piece for an auction. As an artist donating original work for an auction, I have noticed people tend to presume "print reproduction artwork" pricing even on original pieces of work due to the fact that 99.9% of art sold at an auction is in a limited edition print form. For example, I have been to countless Ducks Unlimited auctions where another artist has donated an original piece and I always hear people discussing the work and calling it a print. I have even seen auctioneers calling original work a print. The artist doesn't want to see their hard work sell for so-called limited edition print prices. People need to understand and be educated about the increased value of an original painting over that of a print reproduction. Originals are of course "one of a kind". Limited edition prints are usually so mass produced that the word "limited" is completely meaningless. Generally limited edition prints produced today will rarely if ever go up in value. Original paintings by established artists will do nothing but increase in value year after year. The more known an artist becomes the more the value of the original work increases.

I'm hoping this painting raises a nice amount of money for our nature center and goes to someone that will appreciate my work. I'm going to continue painting and promoting my artwork everyday so I know good things will happen in my art career. Maybe one day someone that hasn't been born yet will have this painting on their wall telling people, "My grandparents bought it at a charity auction in Sioux City, Iowa and I'm so glad they did."

Junior Mints - by Darren Maurer

5"x 7"

This is the famous Junior Mints candy along with the iconic box. I was hired for a commission job to paint Junior Mints and this is the finished result. I noticed something about Junior Mints that I had not seen before while working on this piece....they are concave on one side and convex on the other. I didn't say it was an interesting observation...just something I had not noticed before. I have another large painting to finish and I have some other miniature paintings planned and in the first stages of progress. I will be posting everything as they are finished. This is a Commission Painting and therefore is Sold.

Gamma Phi Beta Sorority-Iowa State University

30" x 36"

Last fall our oldest daughter followed in her mother's footsteps and became a member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority at her University. As a special gift to the sorority, we offered to donate an original framed oil painting portrait of the house. Today the painting hangs in the newly redecorated living room and will welcome the women of Gamma Phi Beta back to their Gamma Phi home for years to come.

Gallery Exhibit in Milwaukee!

I took a group of ten paintings to the Katie Gingrass Gallery in Milwaukee late last week for a still life exhibit titled "Stay Still". The show begins in July and continues through September. The gallery is in a historic area of Milwaukee and has a great feel to it. Hopefully the exhibit is well attended and sales go well.

Lifesavers - by Darren Maurer

10" x 10"

I have always liked painting shiny reflective surfaces. Painting a roll of Lifesavers candies with the foil wrapper is way fun. This is another painting that will go to the still life show at Katie Gingrass Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin beginning in July. The painting will be for sale through the gallery at the same time.

Grape Jelly - by Darren Maurer

5" x 5"

I saw this little blob of grape jelly a few mornings ago and noticed how cool it looked. The hot white highlights, the reflected cool blue light on the shadowed side, the deep dark almost black areas within the heart of the blob, the areas where light is captured inside the jelly like the finest gem stone and screams out with the most intense shade of red-violet ever seen. Now that is one cool blob of grape jelly! When I started my blog page over five years ago the one thing I wanted to project to visitors was the process of "seeing.....and not just looking". I call it seeing the "extraordinary within the ordinary". Many people just look and don't really see all the great things around them. All people have their own ideas of what around them is great to see. My family and friends would be the first to attest in my uncanny ability to see the extraordinary within the ordinary.....or at least what is extraordinary to me. As they are all appalled thinking to themselves, "What?" they have witnessed me standing on chairs and table tops in restaurants taking photos of plates of food, silverware, ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers, shadows from a window blind raking across a place setting. They have watched me paint items from grocery store shelves, half eaten pieces of watermelon, cereal bowls left behind after breakfast, slobbery lollipops discarded by children, and the foamy rich little brown bubbles on the surface of a freshly poured cup of hot chocolate. They have seen completed commission pieces such as a weed emerging from a crack in a sidewalk, a favorite glass of wine backlit from a nearby window, tricycles, game boards, and slices of pizza. It seems the ideas for painting subjects from "seeing" the coolness in everyday ordinary items around me will never cease. Even a little blob of grape jelly dropped onto a countertop will do. You have to "see" it, or at any rate, I have to see it and then show it to you. I was reminded of all this yesterday when my youngest and now seventeen year old daughter walked into my studio and said, "Tell me you're not painting a little blob of jelly?" I was....and now I'm showing it to all of you. I want to thank the thousands and thousands of people that have followed this blog for the past five plus years. I'll keep painting. This painting will be available later this summer beginning in July.

Plain m&m's - by Darren Maurer

12" x 12"
I have been invited to show work at a gallery in Milwaukee this summer during July, August, and September. The show will feature still life work from a number of different artists. This painting is obviously m&m's which has been one of my favorite still life subjects since beginning this blog page in the spring of 2006. I can't believe it has been over five years ago that I began posting my work online as I finished each piece. There will be more to come. Lots of work to do!! This painting will be available for purchase beginning in July.