Cordial Cherry by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
Once again I painted one of my favorite candies. I think the inside of a cordial cherry is such a fun subject to paint. This is painting 118 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Boiled Eggs by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
I have enjoyed the paintings I've done with a limited palette and decided to try another one. I'm happy with the results of the eggs and boiling pot on this painting. This is painting 117 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Baseball by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
With the World Series going on right now I decided to paint a baseball. I tried some different still life set ups including a wooden bat but they all seemed to busy and complicated. In the end I think just the baseball by itself says everything that it needs to say. This is painting 116 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Guinness Bottle Cap & Opener by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
No, I didn't drink this when I was finished painting it. I did open one of the bottles of Guinness beer that I sometimes keep on hand for a couple of friends. I thought I was going to paint the dark beer in the bottle but when I saw the cap and opener I liked it better. This is painting 115 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Ketchup & Fries by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I tried several different compositions with these fries before I finally came up with this set up. I had originally wanted to do a painting with the box that the fries came in included in the painting but decided it was better without it. This painting ended up more about the ketchup rather than the fries which was fine with me. Ketchup is a funny thing when you really look at it close. You think it is red but it is also pink, blue, and even has a lot of green in it. This is painting 114 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Watching by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
This is my first Miniature Masterpieces posting of a painting with a person in it. This gentleman was sitting on top of a long table at the park one day just watching the Missouri River roll on by him. I liked his profile from behind him and took a few photos. I titled this painting "Watching" due to the fact that he was watching the river, but I decided to paint the background in an abstract manner so each viewer of the painting might decide what he is watching based on their own experiences. This is painting 113 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Melting Ice Cubes by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"
One of the great things about being a daily painting artist and blogging the work on a consistent basis is being able to continually challenge yourself. I've had this image in my head for awhile now and finally decided to do it. I wanted to use ice cubes that are made with a regular ice cube tray instead of the automatic cube maker kind. They were a challenge due to the transparent and opaque areas within the ice. I am happy with the finished painting because I can feel the ice. I painted this in about a minute and a half before the cubes melted under the hot lights. (Only kidding!!!! I took a photo and worked from that because it would last longer.) This is painting 112 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Peppermint Candies by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I went to a dinner for our local Art Center a couple of weeks ago. They had peppermint candies in a bowl for anyone that wanted one after dinner. I grabbed three of them for a painting because I thought the candies still inside the wrappers would make good subjects. This is painting 111 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Fried Egg & Skillet by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"
I have been wanting to paint an egg but I wanted to do something different with it. This is an egg about half finished frying in the skillet. The skillet proved to be a bigger challenge than the egg to paint. Capturing the brushed metal surface of the skillet was interesting. Just keep working until you get it, right? Is there anything anywhere that has a nicer shade of golden orange yellow than an egg yolk??? I can't think of anything. This is painting 110 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Cupola in Drizzle by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
This cupola caught my eye last weekend. We were at a local pumpkin patch with our daughters and of course it was drizzling rain off and on while we hunted our pumpkins. There was an older barn on the farm with a tin roof and three cupolas along the peak. I liked the way they looked against the grey sky and the wet reflective quality of the roof. It was a perfect opportunity to use a very limited palette of color. Once every one-hundred years I finish a painting and I really, really, like it. This one comes close to that. This is painting 109 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Lilly Pads by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
This painting of lilly pads was an interesting one to me. There were three different levels or surfaces to capture in this painting. The bottom of the pond, the surface of the water, and the lilly pads themselves. All three were different yet they all had to be done correctly to make this look right. I have always liked the challenge of painting water so this was a natural painting for me to want to do. This is painting 108 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Magazine Article - Painting A Day

The article I spoke about in an earlier blog entry is now out at the news stands. I was very honored to be choosen as one of the featured painting a day artists in the article. There are many talented artists out there that could have been included as well. Duane Keiser is credited with starting the painting a day trend and then the article goes on the mention fellow artists Neil Hollingsworth, Jeff Hayes, Maggie Stiefvater, and myself. There are some good tips in the article on how to get started. I was fortunate enough to get the help of Dave Darrow and Mick McGinty when I was getting my blog going.

Paper Wad and Pencil by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
Sometimes I struggle with ideas for paintings. Usually there are hundreds of ideas all around us. Training yourself to see them is the key. This painting represents seeing a possible piece of work out of a failed idea. This is painting 107 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Jar of Marbles by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
Painting this was fun. Reflective marbles inside a reflective glass container. I like to paint glass containers anyway and I have been thinking about doing a miniature with marbles in it somehow also. Why not both at once? Besides, almost everybody has a glass jar somewhere full of marbles. This is painting 106 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Reading Glasses by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I saw this pair of old reading glasses at a friend's antique shop recently and knew I had to do a painting with them. I wanted to have them setting on a book and I choose a Zane Grey novel because he was my grandfather's favorite author. I would be willing to change the title of the book to something more personal to them for the person that purchases the painting also. This is painting 105 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Displaying Daily Paintings at an Art Show

I thought some of the daily painters might like to see a bunch of daily paintings all hung together. I was a guest artist at an art show Saturday evening. Here is a photo of the remaining unsold miniature paintings. I thought they all looked pretty cool hanging together. We hung them by cutting some black plastic into 48"x3" strips and making a hook for one end of each piece of plastic. We then cut narrow pieces of black velcro (fuzzy side) and ran it down the center of each strip of plastic. All we had to do then was cut little pieces of velcro (hooks side) to attach at the top and bottom of each painting and then just stick the paintings to the strip of pastic. The rows of paintings were then hung by the hook from my display panels. We also had some different frames available to show people what the paintings would look like framed. It was easy to just pull one off and put it in the frame and then put it right back. A few of the miniatures sold along with two larger pieces and I also made some good business contacts for commission paintings in the future so the evening was successful. If anybody is interested in seeing or purchasing any remaining miniatures they can be found by going through the archieve section of my blog. If anyone wants a quick little drawing of the hanging strips let me know and I can email a drawing of how they go together.