First Birthday Cupcake - Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"

This is slightly late but not by much. Today, March 28, 2007, is exactly one year to the day that I started my Painting A Day blog. At that time I decided to try and paint one small oil painting everyday and have fun with it. I found out that the pressure of getting one done everyday wasn't fun and I didn't want the quality of the work to suffer so I switched gears and changed the rules. Now I paint them on a very regular basis but don't complete one everyday. I didn't miss very many days at the easel during the past year and this is 145th small oil painting I have finished. I still had the normal work load and commission paintings to keep up with also. My main motivation for starting this blog and painting wasn't and still isn't to sell the paintings. I wanted to stretch my ability and be a better painter. I think I have made progress and plan to keep moving forward and continue learning with each new piece. It has been fun seeing who buys the paintings and where they are from. Out of the 145 paintings I was fortunate enough to have sold 105 of them. It always amazes me which paintings appeal to people and which ones don't get as much attention. I still say some of the best ones are still available.

I have met so many new friends, both artists and art collectors that I can't even begin to name them all. I have had galleries and people wanting commission paintings contact me that would have never known that I existed before. I have shipped paintings to collectors in Europe and Asia and to almost every state in America. Overall it has been an extremely fun and productive year and I'm looking forward to the next one. There are so many more ideas and compositions to create and friends that I haven't met yet.

This painting is a cupcake with one lit candle in it. I used a dark background to make the flame stand out. A happy birthday painting for my blog. This is painting 145 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold. (Click Here to See Auction Results)

Cordial Cherry #2- Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
I just noticed I have been painting a lot of candy lately. Just for everyone's information,I haven't been eating it all. Anyway, this is another commission piece that I have been working on for awhile and finished it this afternoon while I watched the amazing Tiger Woods win another golf tournament. Like the pine cone, this piece was inspired by another daily painting of a cordial cherry (Painting #118, October 31, 2006). The client saw the other painting while looking through my blog and it immediately reminded him of his father. He also saw the painting I did of toast and jam (Painting #32, April 23, 2006) and it reminded him of his mother and he purchased both of them. His sister then saw the paintings and wanted to know if I could paint two more just like them. I agreed, but I don't like to replicate the exact same painting twice so I set up another cordial cherry painted it. It is sort of same but different. I will finish the toast and jam piece next week. This is painting 144 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Painting - Sold

Pine Cone #2 - Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

I painted a pine cone last year shortly after beginning my Painting A Day blog, (See painting #38)and it found a buyer a few weeks later. This painting is similar to #38 but not a complete copy of it. A couple that has been a huge supporter of my work contacted me recently and wanted to know if I could paint another pine cone for them. I am happy to take commissions and enjoyed painting this piece. I did find that this pine cone was no less complicated than the last one though. This is painting 143 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Painting - Sold

Chocolate Easter Bunny Daily Paiting A Day by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"

I had to paint one more Easter candy piece to complete this little series of paintings. Probably the most popular Easter candy is the chocolate bunny. They come in all shapes and sizes. I used a Russell Stover brand bunny because I just liked how it looked. Once again the chocolate proved to be a challenging subject to paint and I am happy with it. This is painting 142 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold. (Click Here to See Auction Results)

Easter Cadbury Egg - Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

4" x 6"

I thought why not paint a Cadbury Egg in the same type of composition as some of the daily paintings I have seen of a real egg? It just makes sense with Easter coming next month. This was a challenging painting. Chocolate has more red in it than one would imagine it does. The soft fondant center was fun to paint also. This is painting 141 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Peeps Easter Candy - Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"

I always know Easter is getting close when these little chicks start showing up at the local grocery stores. I watched a television show last year about how these are made and it was surprisingly quite interesting. One of the most interesting things was they have made millions of them every year for a long time. People love them! This is painting 140 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold (Click Here to See Auction Results)

Raw Egg - Daily Painting A Day by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"

It seems like all the everyday painters have at one time painted a raw egg cracked open with the yolk spilling out. I painted a raw egg in a glass bowl once, but I had not tried this idea until now. Something about capturing a raw egg in an oil painting is intriguing to me. As with the egg in the bowl the yolk is the best part of the painting. The golden yellow color with it's glossy reflective finish is unbelievable. This is painting 139 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Morning Coffee & Crossword Puzzle - Daily Painting A Day - by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"

My initial thought for this painting was going to be a cup of coffee with the morning newspaper laying beside it. A friend suggested showing a newspaper's crossword puzzle with the coffee. I liked that idea and decided to add a pencil also. The reflections in the cup make the painting work for me. This is painting 138 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold (Click Here to See Auction Results)

Monopoly Passing Go - Daily Painting A Day - by Darren Maurer

7" x 9"

There is something about these Monopoly board paintings that keep me wanting to do more. The game pieces all cast interesting shadows if the light is at a low angle. This is the iron and the shadow helps the viewer visualize the shape of the game piece when it is seen from directly above. This is painting 137 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold (Click Here to See Auction Results)

Tube of Red Paint by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

I had fun with this one. All the different planes on the crinkled aluminum tube is what makes this painting interesting for me. This is painting 136 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Box of 64 Crayolas by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"

I have painted new Crayola Crayons in the past and commented at the time about the smell of a newly opened box of Crayolas. That is an odor that always returns me to a place not so long ago to a house on Grand Island Ave. in Grand Island, Nebraska. My sister and I would have a sort of undisclosed contest to which one of us could finish a new color book the fastest and also with the best quality coloring. We would soon wear down most of the crayons and break a few along the way. They always would end up tossed into a plastic tub of some kind with short yellow #2 pencils and ink pens that didn't work anymore until they were all so short you could hardly hold them. I have a brand new box of Crayolas in my art studio today that has been there for the last 15 years. I keep them on a shelf next to a drafting table and every once in awhile I take them down, open the box, and smell them. This is painting 135 in my Painting A Day Series. It is also a commission painting and won't be on an eBay auction.

I also wanted to thank Charley Parker, of Lines and Colors, for a great article this week about the newly formed Daily Painters Guild. I am proud and happy to say that I am one of the founding members. Read Charley's article here at Lines and Colors.