Tricycle by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
I found this tricycle and knew I had to paint it. The simple red and white shiny surfaces and an interesting shadow make this paintings work for me. I haven't posted in awhile due to a commission piece I have been working on. I'm getting closer to finished on it so hopefully I can get more consistent here. This is painting 104 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Magazine Article

I just found out that Art Calendar Magazine is going to feature some of my work in the October issue. They are doing an article on Painting A Day. The magazine deals with the business of selling and marketing art. When the magazine comes out I will post another entry and show more about it.

Vintage Duck Decoy #1 by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
Some of you have seen and heard my stories and adventures of finding and collecting antique fishing equipment. Well, I also have a passion for carved and factory made antique duck and goose decoys. This one is included in my collection and I decided to paint it tonight. This decoy has a cork body with a carved wooden head. It would have had a glass eye set into a hole in the head but the glass eye is missing from this side of the decoy. Old decoys all have a story to tell. This is painting 103 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Chocolate Chip Cookie & Milk by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
We had hot chocolate chip cookies at our house this weekend. I was looking for a subject to paint last night and my wife suggested a cookie and milk. I decided to give this one enough time to paint it and then I finished it off. This is painting 102 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Available $100

Maple Leaf by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
Once again I painted this on a slightly larger panel. I like to use the 8" x 10" panels sometimes just to take a break and paint larger. Our neighbors have a huge maple tree in their yard and some of the leaves have already started to make their journey from the tree tops to the ground. I have always liked the color of the leaves this time of year and thought I would see if I could capture the moment in a painting. I love the color but don't care for the rake thing and bagging them up. This is painting 101 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Celebration Cake by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
This is my one-hundredth daily painting I've done since starting this blog back in March. I wanted to do a painting that would also be a celebration. What says celebration more than a piece of cake? The challenge to this painting was the white cake on the white plate. The plate was picking up some local color and giving it a very light purple cast but the frosting on the cake wasn't getting the same effect. I don't know how well you can see it in the painting but it looks nice with the very light purple on the plate next to the warm colors of the cake itself. I did eat this piece of cake and will go running in the morning. By the way, did I mention this is painting 100 in my Painting A Day Series? Painting Sold

First Ball Glove by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I can remember getting my first baseball glove very well. I had to "work it in" by bending, folding, oiling and playing catch with it for hours before it was eventually deemed worthy enough of actually using it in a real baseball game. I used that glove for years and I still have it today. We found this glove on a trip last summer inside an old general store in Wyoming. They had an antique area in the upper level of the store and when I saw the glove I photographed it on the floor in the light coming through a window. It would be interesting to know who worked this glove in a long time ago. This is painting 99 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

The Last Lifesaver by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
This painting is fitting because the last painting showed this roll of Lifesavers when it was new. I had them in my studio since finishing the other painting and slowly but surely kept picking away at them. When I got down to the last one I thought that it might make another painting. It also brought back memories of getting down to the last Lifesaver and knowing that you only had one more and then that was it. I was going to finish this one off until my daughter stopped in when I was almost finished with this piece and asked if she could have it. I gave in and she got the last Lifesaver. This is painting 98 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

I have started a fairly large commission this week and have been neglecting my daily paintings a little bit. I will be able to get the commission piece where I need it to be over this weekend and then start posting miniatures again. I will still complete a painting a day and then use the rest of my time to work on the other piece.

Lifesavers by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
Here is a painting of one of my other favorite candies when I was growing up. (Some people would say I didn't really grow up, I just got bigger.) I always remember getting the package open and then peeling the foil and wax paper off in circular curly little strips. This is painting 97 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Red & Green Pears by Darren Maurer

8"x 10"
I wanted to paint these pears mainly because they were complimentary colors of each other. I used a more overhead view to create a different composition from some of the other fruit paintings. I also liked how the shadows looked from this angle. I don't know if you can pick up the subtle colors in the shadows but there is a lot of reflected color back in the shadow areas. I was trying to achieve a sort of an old world look with this painting. This is painting 96 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Rockem Sockem Robots by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
This was one of my all time favorite childhood toys. It was fun to paint and brought back some fun memories of knocking each other's block off. I also wanted to use a low vantage point for the painting so it would feel like you were in the crowd watching a real boxing match. This is painting 95 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold