Grand Mansion by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
I painted this piece and have kept it in my personal collection. I decided to post it today because I was working on a volunteer job last night and didn't have a chance to work on a painting. It is a portrait of an older home that caught my eye with the sunlight streaming through the trees onto the house. The colors were anywhere from dark purple to vibrant violets on the near side of the home. I'm not assigning this painting a number since I painted before I started my miniature series. Painting Available $150

Peanut m&m's with Wrapper by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
After painting the earlier piece of the plain m&m's I had several suggestions to do a painting featuring peanut m&m's. I like painting the wrapper because it is colorful and shiny. This is painting 94 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Monopoly Free Parking Corner by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
Here is my fourth Monopoly painting and the third of four corners of the board. One painting was of the center of the board. The corner that hasn't been painted yet is the jail corner. The funnest part of painting these is the game piece. I like getting the paint to look like it is a shiny piece of metal formed into a recognizable object. This is painting 93 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

M & M's Candy and Wrapper by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
Here is another painting of one of my many weaknesses. Brightly colored coated pieces of chocolate. I also like how the wrapper is sort of slick and shiny. I had to eat about three little bags of these while doing this painting. I would get down to the part where I had to check colors with my paint and there would be no other pieces of candy left of the color I needed. Oh well, I will sacrifice for the sake of the art. This is painting 92 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Bowl of Oranges by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
This is Monday's painting of the day. I didn't get it on earlier due to family matters and then two friends calling at 9:30pm and saying, "Hey! Lets go to the movie that starts at 9:50pm." I decided to go to the movie and I'm glad I did. Sometimes a break is a good thing to do. The painting shows a bowl of fresh oranges that are lit from behind and above. The contrast between the oranges and the white bowl was fun. The reflected colors in the white bowl were also challenging. I like how the lighting subdued the colors of everything. This is painting 91 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Art Festival Benches

This isn't a miniature oil painting post but I thought I would show everyone what I did this afternoon. There is an art festival every Labor Day weekend in Sioux City. I have donated my time to paint a park bench for the festival the last few years. This year I painted two benches and one will be raffled off and the other kept and used during the festival every year. The design is from the logo that will be used this year. I like how the benches turned out. I will clear coat them tomorrow and deliver both benches to the Sioux City Art Center on Tuesday. I will post an oil painting tomorrow evening as usual.

Corona Bottle with Lime Wedge by Darren Maurer (Commission Painting - Sold)

6" x 8"
This is a commission that was inspired by a previous piece of work of a lime wedge in the top of a Corona bottle. I don't usually do the exact same subject for a painting more than once. Thankfully the buyer of this commission wanted the viewpoint to be slightly further back in order to show some beer in the neck of the bottle. I'm happy for that because now it presents different challenges for me from the first painting. Commissions are already challenging simply because of the fact that you are completing a painting that someone has ordered of a specific scene or subject matter. I am happy with the results of this one, I hope my customer is as well! This is painting 90 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold-Commission

Cherry Nut Ice Cream #2 by Darren Maurer (Commission Painting-Sold)

5" x 7"
This is another cherry nut ice cream painting that I did as a commission for fellow artist, Vivienne St. Clair, in Ireland. I wanted to do something different than I did for the first cherry nut ice cream painting (May 19, 2006) so the viewpoint is slightly higher on this one. I always like the fact that one of my paintings can strike something inside someone so much that they want a similar piece for themselves. Here's to you Vivienne!! This is painting 89 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold-Commission

Bass Oreno Fishing Lure by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
I painted another fishing lure from my collection. I seem to like these red and white Bass Orenos. They are all similar to one another but yet each one is interesting to me somehow. This lure has been commercially manufactured since the early 1900s and probably has out sold any other apparatus designed to fool a fish. This is painting 88 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Peaches by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
My daughter was setting the dinner table last night and she set two peaches right on the table cloth. The light was coming through the dining room window and hitting them just right. I decided to paint them with a muted green background to bring out the brilliant color of the peaches even more. It is also back to the more painterly style of some of the previous fruit paintings. This is painting 87 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Monopoly Go To Jail by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
Landing on the Go To Jail square was always a big downer if you had plenty of multi-colored fake cash on hand and a blessing if you were broke. This could be one of the most famous squares to land on of any game anywhere. How many times have you heard someone say, "Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200."? This is painting 86 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Rubber Ducky by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
My wife collects rubber ducks and I have been fortunate enough to win three Iowa Duck Stamp Contests and be able to enter a painting into the Federal Duck Stamp Contest every year. My entries into the Federal contest have finished very well a few times also. Some of my artist friends have joked in the past that I should paint one of her ducks and enter it into a duck stamp competition. No, I'm not sending this one to Washington D.C. this year but I did use one of her collection pieces as a subject for a painting. It is shown by a faucet fixture on a pedestal sink in our home that has an antique nostalgic feel and look to it. I always think of Ernie on Sesame Street when I see a yellow rubber duck. This is painting 85 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Monopoly Dice by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I painted another Monopoly piece tonight. I'm happy with the final painting. I like the composition aspects of the painting again. It did get kind of late before I finished it and photographed it. I am posting it now, which is really Friday morning but it is Thursday's painting. I don't know if I will be able to post one tomorrow. This is painting 84 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Monopoly Game Board by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"
As kids my sister and I used to play Monopoly whenever we had nothing else to do. When I look back it must have been quite often. Just the two of us. One against the other. Plotting and scheming our next move to throw the other into financial ruin. Wheeling and dealing in huge amounts of multi-colored fake money, trades, and trickery. Now I watch and listen to my daughters doing the same thing. The older one proudly claims she has never been beaten at the game and wants me to enter her into a Monopoly tournament in Vegas. I told her it sounds fun and maybe she should hold her own tournament and use the benefits for a worthy cause in our own hometown. More on that later. I am going to offer 8" x 10" paintings every once in awhile from now on. By the way, this is painting 83 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold