Hammer and Nails - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

I found an old hammer in my neighbor's garage last week and wanted to use it in a painting. I have painted fruit, candy and several other items in the past two-and-a-half years, but never tools. I love tools new and old. I have mentioned in my blog before about old fishing lures having a story to tell. Old tools have the same thing in common with old lures. They all have a story. I thought the hammer needed some nails with it to add some interest and tell the story. This is painting 227 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

John's Dad - by Darren Maurer

11" x 14"

This painting is slightly larger than my daily miniatures. I wanted to paint larger in this case due to the subject matter and it is a commission painting. My client requested the painting be in a certain size range. Since it is somewhat different from most of the work shown here I wanted everyone to see it. I think I really captured the feel of my friend John's dad. He is a real life cowboy from western South Dakota. I'm not assigning this piece a number for a daily paintings because it doesn't fit my criteria. It is also a sold commission painting.

More than just a Painter

This is obviously a three dimensional waffle cone with a scoop of ice cream on top. The entire ice cream cone measures about eleven feet high and is close to five feet in diameter at it's widest point. Along with ideas and help from my wife and another friend, we were the architects, designers, engineers, sculptors and painters for the whole project and I was quite relieved when it rolled out the door all finished last week. There were several issues to solve before beginning to build the cone. How will it attach to the float and stand up? How will it handle a wind load? How would the internal structure be constructed? What materials would be best suited to make a large realistic ice cream cone? The last thing and the most important item to my family and every neighbor from blocks around.....what flavor should the ice cream be? The cone will be used as a featured item in a few parades this summer. I really enjoy these types of projects and have completed several of them over the past ten years. I would love to have part of my business be designing and building large three dimensional objects for parades, trade shows or whatever. In addition to being extremely challenging, they provide a sometimes needed break from painting. It is still art but different.

Green Pop Bottle - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

6 1/2" x 12"

Other than taking five days off to go fishing last week I have been extra busy the last several weeks. I was commissioned by Wells' Dairy in LeMars, Iowa, to design, engineer and fabricate an eleven foot tall, three dimensional ice cream cone. I finished the giant ice cream cone Thursday evening and they were extremely happy with it today. Maybe I will post some photos of it when I can.

I did manage to finish a painting tonight and like the result. It is a little different from some of my usual work. I usually like to crop in tightly on interesting sections of normal objects. "Finding the composition within the composition," I like to say. This green glass pop bottle caught my eye today and instantly knew it would make an interesting subject. I wanted to key on the entire bottle and also the shadow it was casting. I painted it on a longer more panoramic panel to make everything work together. This is painting 226 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Available $100. (Click Here for Purchase Information or Use the Pay Pal Button Above)

Plain m&m's - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

I have been wanting to paint m&m's again for awhile now. Today just felt right for an m&m's subject. As far as painting candy goes these have to be my favorite. The shadows and little highlight of reflection make this piece work. I have been getting several emails lately complimenting me on my "style". It is sort of weird because I really didn't think of anything I do here as a style but looking back I do think a recognizable style has possibly developed. I'll keep doing what I do and I am humbled people like it. This is painting 225 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Jar and Yellow Pencil - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

Yellow pencils are one of my favorite subjects to paint. I have this jar in my studio and I keep pencils, small brushes, pallette knives and anything else that needs somewhere to stand out of the way. I took everything out except the lone yellow pencil. Painting the slight distortions from the glass jar makes this painting interesting to me. This is painting 224 in Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Watermelon Rind - Daily Painting by Darren Maurer

5" x 7"

I painted a slice of watermelon in April of 2006 (Click Here to See the Painting) and I painted a pile of watermelons in June of 2006 (Click Here to See the Painting). Since then, I haven't had any watermelon subjects for some reason. I saw this piece of watermelon rind with the fork at my friend's house and knew I had a subject for a painting here. I really like how this turned out. The juice with the seeds makes it real for me. This is painting 223 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.

Raw Egg in White Bowl by Darren Maurer

6" x 8"
I really like the soft subtle feel of this piece. The lighting was coming from a slight distance and as a result, it softened the entire painting. I used a very simple white bowl so I wanted to show the side of the bowl in the composition. The only edge in the painting that in a hard edge is right on top of the egg yolk. I softened the other edges somewhat to focus attention on the yolk. This is painting 222 in my Painting A Day Series. Painting Sold.