Autumn Trees by Darren Maurer

8 x 10"

This is a painting I finished that is very impressionistic. The scene is out in western South Dakota. I wanted to show eveyone another aspect of my work and this painting shows it perfectly. I really enjoy just letting the paint fly sometimes.

Bluebill Duck Decoy- Daily Painting- by Darren Maurer

6"x8"

This species of duck, Greater Scaup, are also known by the nickname of a bluebill due to the grayish blue bill. Painting and designing duck stamps has a side reward of learning a lot about ducks. Bluebills are one of my favorite species of ducks to paint and also when given the chance to watch a group flying into a spread of decoys. I have a few bluebill decoys in my collection and this is one of the best ones. This decoy is made by attaching a painted cork body to a one inch thick piece of wood that forms the base of the decoy. The head is a carved piece of wood set on the cork body with a metal rod running through the cork anchoring it to the wooden base also. This is painting 195 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Gingerbread Man - Daily Painting - by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

This painting is for my wife. When she was two-and-a-half years old in 1968 she received this stuffed gingerbread man as a Christmas gift from her grandfather. He passed away in April of 1969. It has always been a childhood favorite of hers and I am happy to paint it for her. My mother-in-law came up with this idea and she brought the gingerbread man with her on an earlier visit. He remained hidden in my art studio until a time when my wife was away long enough for me to finish the painting. We all surprised her with it last Saturday. This is painting 194 in my Painting A Day Series. This painting is not for sale for obvious reasons. Although I would welcome anyone wishing to have an oil painting commission done of one of their favorite childhood toys or stuffed animals. Email me for details.

Ice Cubes #2 - Daily Painting - by Darren Maurer

8" x 8"

This is the second painting I have done of ice cubes. The first one was back on 10/17/06 and received a more than average amount of comments from blog viewers. Click HERE to see the first ice cubes painting. These are ice cubes from an automatic ice maker out of our refrigerator. Something I would have never guessed is that ice cubes have a certain amount of pinkish tone to them. I don't know where the pink comes from because nothing around them was pink. There must be some pink in the lighting somehow. Getting the color correct when painting an ice cube is extremely important to getting a convincing image in oil paint. This is painting 193 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Butter Spreader- Daily Painting- by Darren Maurer

3 1/2" x 10"

This painting is a commission for someone that has a collection of butter spreaders. I started out working out a composition that was 6x8 and started painting on it. The more I worked, the more I knew it wasn't right. The butter spreader needed to be the star. In the first composition it was competing against several other elements in the painting. There were plates, saucers, coffee cups and the butter spreader all wanting to be the star of the show. I decided to scrap the first painting and start over with a different composition. I chose a horizontal format so the spreader could be the dominant element in the painting. I purposely left only a partial piece of the plate and muffin showing. I liked painting the butter. This is painting 192 in my Painting A Day Series. Commission Sold.

Green Eggs and Ham Teddy Bear - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5"x7"

Dr. Seuss was my favorite author when I was a kid. I loved the rhyming stories and his illustrations of all different characters and creatures involved in them. When my girls were young I always read a book to them at bedtime. I would try to read the stories at a fairly fast rate and attempt to not get my tongue crossed up. It isn't easy to do. One of our favorite books was "Green Eggs and Ham". I have been thinking about a painting involving one of the books and how to handle the composition. Bedtime usually meant some sort of stuffed animal to sleep with. A teddy bear seemed to be the logical choice. Painting the book and keeping the lettering readable was important to the painting. The drawback to doing that is having the painting look a little bit rendered. I really let the paint brush fly on the teddy bear though. When finished it seemed to have a nice balance between a rendered painting and a loosely painted one. This is painting 191 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Truckstop Rotating Display Case Cheesecake - by Darren Maurer

5"x7"

This painting wins the prize for the miniature with the longest title so far. I painted this piece from a photograph that I took last summer traveling across South Dakota. It was inside one those rotating display cases that has all different desserts going around and around with lights on them at a truckstop cafe. I always wonder how many times on average a dessert has to rotate before someone picks it out of the line up. Cheesecake is probably my all time favorite dessert and I loved the way the clear plastic wrap was stretched tight over the top of it. Painting Sold

Egg - Daily Painting - by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"
I took some time off painting over Christmas and New Years. Just doing whatever without any sort of schedule for several days is enjoyable sometimes. We visited some family over the break and did a lot of relaxing. I am now back to work. I like painting raw eggs. The color of the raw yolk is amazing. This egg was cracked open on a black surface. When looking through the white of the egg the black surface was pure black in the shadow areas. This is painting 190 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold