Weed in A Sidewalk Crack by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"

This is the thrid and final commission painting for my client. She wanted a painting of a simple week growing from a crack in a sidewalk. Her reasons for having me paint it are her own which is the great thing about paintings. Different paintings can all mean something different or remind everyone of a memory from their past. I sort of like people contacting me with their ideas because it always presents a new challenge to paint something like this, a weed in a sidewalk crack, and make it look interesting. This painting 179 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Painting - Sold.

Kraft Marshmallows - Daily Painting - by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"

I finished up another one of the three commissions I wrote about yesterday. Kraft Marshmallows are one of those foods as kid that you think should have its own food group. They were great right out of the bag or dissolved in a cup of hot cocoa. My all time favorite is still toasted to a golden brown over an open fire. This is painting 178 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Painting Sold

Orange Popcicle Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"

I have been working on three painting on and off for the past few weeks. They are all three commission paintings and all have a special meaning to the person that commissioned them. I'm not going to go into the personal reasons of my customer. I thought everyone might like to see the paintings though so I will be posting them as they are finished. I will have the second one done tomorrow and the third finished probably sometime this weekend. The thing I always find interesting is when several people look at the same painting they all relate to it somehow. The really interesting part is they will all have different reasons and memories that cause them to connect with the painting. What does an orange popcicle make you think of? This is painting 177 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Painting Sold

Piano Keys - Painting A Day - by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"

I have been enjoying painting my limited palette pieces of work lately. Andrew Wyeth is one of my very favorite artists and he used a limited palette quite extensively. You can view some examples of his work by clicking on his name. Limited palette is when an artist uses very few colors of paint to produce a painting. I only used black and white for this one. This subject is a no-brainer for using black and white and probably isn't the most creative thing I could have chosen to paint. My decision also included wanting to paint something that would be appealing to a wide group of people too. I'm not musically inclined. I do love good music and several members of my family are musically inclined and I know lots of others that are gifted musically as well. I really like how this piece turned out. This is painting 176 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold

Butterscotch Candy Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5"x 7"

I have painted the little peppermint candies a couple of times in my Painting A Day Series. I have gotten some emails from people that say that the peppermint candies remind them of someone or someplace from their past. I can remember my grandmother always seemed to have a bowl of candy setting out when we visited. Usually there were a few of these butterscotch candies mixed with the rest of the brightly colored hard candies. The butterscotch ones were and still are one of my favorites. I would take them from the bowl first and by the time we had to leave I would have to run my hand through the remaining candy hoping to find just one more butterscotch piece. This was a fun painting to work on and I thought of that candy dish while I was working on it. This is painting 175 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Coffee Cups by Darren Maurer

8" x 10"

There is a little coffee shop not far from our house that has one of the most unique atmospheres of any coffee shop that I have ever been inside. It is named "The Coffee Works". The owner is a fine art photographer that has traveled the world shooting photographs. He always rotates several of his photographs from all around the world on the walls of the shop. He also gives local artists the opportunity to show paintings in the shop as well. I haven't shown any work there but I have also never asked either. I'm not a coffee drinker but I do stop by from time to time and buy one of the lunch sandwiches which, by the way, are also unbelievably good. This painting is from the coffee shop and shows the cups all washed and stacked waiting for the coffee drinkers to show up. They caught my attention one day and I knew they would make a great painting. This is a very limited palette of color for this painting and was actually quite challenging to finish. This is painting 174 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.