Starting Over

I never painted 74 new paintings in a year before. And I probably never would have if I had not set the goal of painting 365 paintings in a year, or rather, 30 paintings in 30 days, ongoing. Having failed at an initial [and naive] goal, I succeeded in accomplishing something I likely never would have. Yesterday I officially started over. It's been nearly 2 months since my last Everyday Painting, interrupted by a few significant things in my life, namely a large commission, a demonstration commission, and, most significantly, marital separation (I had to move out for medical reasons: she was sick of me). I actually moved into my new apartment/studio at the beginning of May, but just yesterday completed setting my studio back up ready for painting. Besides the grueling work of moving all my stuff out of my old place, putting it into a truck and then hauling it all back out at the next place and then up 4 flights of stairs, there was the additional, previously unknown inconvenience of the notice to vacate for two days while the owners tented and fumigated the entire complex. Mine is the middle circus tent, top floor. (Where's the Google Earth camera when you need it?) So yesterday I sat down and started a painting, and I will be posting it today. Starting over has never been as significant to me as is does today.

Crate Expectations

Building a Crate
For Shipping a Painting
Well, it's not like waving goodbye to your kid on a school bus on his first day of Kindergarten... but it's close. If I can avoid putting a 32 x 40 painting in the hands of a courier again for the rest of my life, I will likely have fewer gray hairs. Not that I don't trust FedEx — after all, both of my sons work for that fine company — but my anxiety over shipping hit me before I even got the painting started, which, as it turned out, was a good thing. Rule #1: If you are shipping out an unframed painting, build the crate after you have stretched your canvas, but before you start painting. You don't want sawdust in the paint.

Unlike most of the things I have learned in my life I did not learn this the hard way. I am delighted to tell you I actually thought of this in advance.

As I contemplated what this shipping crate should look and function like, I decided to head over to Home Depot to look at wood. This was not a tough decision. For me, thinking about being inside a Home Depot takes about as much forethought as Michael Moore gives to going into a Krispy Kreme. I'm there. I picked out my wood, did a little measuring and then sat down and did some figuring on a scrap of paper which a guy in the Windows Department gave me. With those figures in mind, I grabbed a sheet of 1/8" luan mahogany (door skin) and headed over to the cutting area and had the fellow cut two panels to size so I could then go home and build this box. I then glued and nailed these spacers around the bottom-inside of it, to keep the painting off the bottom skin, and away from the sides. I added FedEx-friendly handles to one side, encouraging them to carry it with those, and to stand it up on edge when not carrying it. Then I made some cleats to hold the painting down to the spacers, and away from the "lid-skin." These were all pre-drilled and marked with numbers so I could re-assemble the crate on shipping day without making new saw-dust that might fall on the painting surface. I carefully set the 32" x 40" portrait inside and onto the spacers. I then screwed on all the cleats (10 of them) which I had previously attached when the canvas was unpainted (bare), and which I had numbered and marked with a line on the cleat and the frame, so that I could easily align them again with their individual holes. With the painting so firmly held in place by the cleats that it actually added strength to the crate, I dropped the top skin into the pre-dadoed reveal on the top, and screwed about 50 wide-head screws on to hold the top skin into the groove, adding corners made from scrap 1/8" "skin" for extra strength and durability. I added a "strap" of scrap luan for added strength across the middle, and duct-taped the edges down so it wouldn't catch on anything in shipping. I then drove it to FedEx — where I got a compliment on my crate from a customer. I need to give credit to Morgan Weistling, a fantastic painter and dearest of friends, who advised me when I called asking for suggestions. His advice: make it as light as you can to encourage them to carry it, not fork-lift it and add handles to suggest the same. He also advised me to use FedEx, as he has had the best handling and treatment from them, out of all the major carriers. I will not sleep for 2 days.

Click here to watch a little movie of a 3D fly-through of my crate. Made with Google Sketch-up. A free modeling program for Mac or PC! The blue, translucent rectangles represent the as-yet unattached bottom and lid, which would later be dropped into place.

Update It arrived safely 2 days later, and, according to my client, looked like it had been handled gently all the way from CA to KS. Whew! And they loved the painting. In my accompanying letter to them, asking them to consider it for two weeks before asking for changes, if any, my client responded:

David, Sorry, I would like to tell you to do this or that to the picture... Impossible, it looks absolutely perfect right now! The three things I was hoping to get... you got. 1. It is a damn good work of art. 2. It looks just like her. 3. You actually "caught" her. The mannerisms, etc.

That totally makes my day.

Anne: A Completed Portrait

by David R. Darrow 32" x 40" (81.3cm x 101.6cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen
Not For Sale
Private Collection

About This Painting

It's done!

And with client approval and acceptance I can ship it this week.

I am delighted with the result. It did not "fly off my brush with ease" as these things go with some artists... this has been a lot of work, and I have enjoyed the struggle.

I finished it last night, poured a glass of cabernet sauvignon and toasted my worthy adversary: Portrait of Anne. I have been wrestling with her the better part of a month — not every day, but most days.

She has been a delight to paint. An absolutely lovely face, and a distinctly handsome woman [1] and it was a pleasure to get to know her personally prior to starting this painting.

I am told by her husband Charles, who commissioned this as a symbol of gratitude for the love of his life for their 20th anniversary, that it will hang in the same room in which the reference material was gathered for this painting, in their modest Kansas home.  ◙

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Someday...

by David R. Darrow 11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen Panel
SOLD Collection of Anthepy Nelson
Timonium, MD – USA

About This Painting

Her large, beautiful, but longing eyes betrayed her. She looked as if she wanted to be somewhere else.

She had a servant's heart, a warm smile, easily able to be chatty with those on whom she waited each day. She was beyond dutiful when performing her tasks. She was the best around. And nothing about the moment I caught her eyes staring at a distant hope "somewhere out there" diminished the excellence of her work, her attitude, her presence.

In a moment of stolen rest, twisting at the waist to wring out the morning's aches and tension, she stood staring at something beyond the physical window that only she could see, for its reality was in her mind, not outside.

Jamie, who modeled for this painting, caught my artist's eye one morning when I was out to breakfast with my daughter. She laughed easily, chatted at each of the tables in her station, looked each person in the eye making each feel as though we were all old friends. She's a waitress at a popular breakfast chain, and my daughter and I were out for pancakes and eggs.

"Would you like sausage or bacon with your breakfast, sir?"

"Bacon, please. And I'd like you to consider modeling for a painting."

Later that week, she did.  ◙

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Reflections on a Fall Morning

by David R. Darrow 12" x 9" (30.5cm x 22.9cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen Panel
SOLD Collection of Doris Darrow
Sunnyvale, CA – USA
Happy 79th Birthday, Mom!

About This Painting

Weather or not...

That is not a typo, it's a pun.

I joined a group of plein air painters at San Diego's Balboa Park, once the site of a World's Fair one Fall morning to paint sites on the grounds.

There is a gorgeous reflecting pond and Arboretum there, and immediately after setting up my French Easel, it began to drizzle. That's no big deal when painting in oil... the water is repelled by the oil in the paint, so I decided to stick it out and keep painting.

Three hours later the precipitation had increased to actual, bona fide raining and I decided to pack it up, and finish the painting later from snapshots.  ◙

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Oil Sketch - Geoff

Geoff wanted the whole experience of getting a portrait done, so I spared him nothing. The first day started with my arrival at his house, him inviting me in, and his eyes bugging out of his head — albeit politely — as I began to load my stuff into his house. The majority of my stuff was more related to photography and video: lighting, stands, audio mixer, microphone, lots of cords and wires... and the minority were essentials: French easel, paints, canvas, brushes. To loosen up and get my head in an abstract place, I grabbed a gessoed luan mahogany panel, 11 x 14, and began painting freehand rapidly, squishing paint here and there with no underdrawing, no toning. After about an hour (would have been quicker if were weren't having such a fascinating conversation that demanded non-visual parts of my brain), I set my brushes down, flipped the board around so Geoff could see it, and said , "Here's a quick oil portrait of you that I am proud to say barely resembles you." His girlfriend, who visited the following day, said she kinda thought it looked like maybe his 12-year-old-son, in a way, if, you know, he had one.

Michelle in Conte

by David R. Darrow 12" x 14" (30.5cm x 35.6cm)
Conte on Smooth Newsprint This painting is not framed Click here to bid on eBay
Opening Bid: $19.95 / Buy It Now™ $29.95 Ends: Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:21 PM (Pacific Time)

About This Drawing

I've decided to post some of my Life Drawings on eBay for sale.

Each of them that I sell is a one-of-a-kind original from the hand, eyes and experience of David R. Darrow. That's me.

These were usually done as demonstrations when I was teaching Life Drawing at a local college. They are all done on 18" x 24" smooth newsprint — the favorite of students and teachers, but not inherently archival. Newsprint is known to yellow and get brittle over time, which I think adds to the character of it. If mounted properly, matted with acid-free mat board, and protected with glass, these drawings can last for decades and look quite elegant.

I recommend taking your drawing to a Poster and Framing shop at a local mall and have them dry-mount it on foam-core. They can also trim it to your frame size, help you with matting, and frame it too, if you want. The mounting and foam-core is about $10, last I checked.

Some of these will be listed as auctions and others in my eBay store.

You may want to take a moment to bookmark my store by name: Everyday Paintings (just like my art website, only different)

The shipping cost covers double mailing tubes, insurance and the shipping weight. If you purchase more than one of these drawings you may have each additional drawing for $19.95 with free shipping if all are shipped together. I will provide the discount on the invoice, or if that is not possible, I will refund the portion that is overpaid, immediately, through Paypal. (It's complicated at my end, but it works).

Please ignore the picture and description of the shipping carton at the bottom of this page... that is for my paintings and has nothing to do with this auction  ◙

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Simultaneous Commissions

I got a rush job that could lead to bigger things (more on that later) so this weekend I have been doing an art house call, so to speak. Geoff, the man in the pictures, is commissioning an oil portrait of his likeness (more on that later) and so I have taken about as much of my studio and lighting and video and audio equipment to his home 35 miles away, and set up in his living room to go through the process. Geoff — knowing that it's a much shorter event for each of us if we just get together and get to know each other for a couple hours, maybe do some charcoal and then color sketches and then shoot reference photos for me to use in the studio — wanted the real deal, the old-fashioned sitting; an "I'm sitting for a portrait" experience. He's allowing me the privilege of videotaping over my shoulder while I draw and paint to eventually use for an instructional demo DVD (more on that later). Due to several forms of upheaval and inconvenient transitions going on in my life (more on that later) as well as the currently diminutive size of my studio, we could not do the work at my location, and so we chose his. It has been surprisingly rattling to my confidence to finally get set up in his home (about an hour and a half of set-up) and then draw in front of him. I'm not sure why. I scrapped the first drawing (not shown) and started over again. The drawing to the right is what I arrived at by the time my sketch was done and he had to leave for work. Before he got up from his seat, I shot a few reference photos, and, back in my studio this afternoon, studied my drawing and the photos and solved the problems related to why it wasn't looking enough like him. The sketch at the top of this post is the final charcoal under-drawing on an acrylic-toned canvas that will be covered in oil paint tomorrow. More on that later.

Promise

by David R. Darrow 7" x 10" (17.8cm x 25.4cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen Panel SOLD Collection of Svietlana T. Franke
Baltimore, MD – USA

About This Painting

Whenever I look through a camera lens, I start seeing framed pictures. Usually I see framed paintings, to be more specific.

When I saw this young woman sitting in this lighting, I asked if I could take some pictures of her. I told her that this particular lighting would make for a wonderful head-study and that I'd like to do a painting or drawing of her someday.

Getting around to it has been a bit of a challenge.

I met her in my second term at Art Center College of Design — coming up on 30 years ago — when I took the picture on which this painting is based. I mostly wanted to take her picture because I thought she was pretty and I liked her.

I found an old box of slides the other day, and when I saw this image again after all these years, I thought again that "this particular lighting would make for a wonderful head-study."

And so I guess I have kept that promise, just like it was yesterday. Only now I have no idea where she is. I haven't seen her since college.  ◙

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Searching

by David R. Darrow 8" x 8" (20.3cm x 20.3cm)
Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel Available in my eBay Store
Price: $350.00 — Or Make an Offer

About This Painting

I met this fascinating fellow when I stopped in at a local place for a cold drink on a summer day four or five years ago.

He recently posed for me.

There are some days here on the California coast that simply insist that you pour something soothing down your parched throat, further demanding that it had better have the right flavor.

I am not much of a fan of beer.

Not since I got spoiled by the hand-crafted ale made at Carlsbad Brewing Company's Pizza Port right here in my town. To someone who has not found delight in award-winning ale versus a cold beer, I can only describe it as the difference between, say, Yuban or Folgers coffee and a cup of espresso made with a fine Italian espresso machine and the skilled barista creating it.

So, when I stopped in for a chilled ale one day a few years ago, I met Dave. Well, you don't really meet Dave. Dave is part of the atmosphere at Pizza Port.

You experience Dave.

This day he was — as he always is, I have since learned — working on his own personal record on the pinball machine, on which he also held the game's top score until his 15-year-old daughter recently topped him.

When Dave has had enough of the machine that eventually always wins, he backs away, gives it a respectful chin-up reverse nod, and goes out to the outer courtyard with his now-warm glass of ale and mingles with the crowd. Sometimes he retrieves his white-lacquer, steel-string, acoustic guitar from someone who has been "watching it for him" and breaks into just about any popular tune, folk or rock, from the 1950s on forward. He seemingly knows them all.

Dave has done just about everything, I recently learned when I sat down with him and talked mano y mano for about three hours. He's done carpentry, accounting, ditch-digging, welding, auto-mechanic, you name it... but what he always wanted to be — and still laments that it never happened for him despite years on the circuit — was a professional musician. He plays several instruments, wails on the guitar, sings with a decent rock-baritone-to-second-tenor, powerful voice, possesses a performer's heart, and has a head full of knowledge about anything from the US government, crack-pot laws, rock and roll, automobiles and biblical eschatology — the latter being the topic of the bulk of the conversation for those three hours.

The conversation was lively and kept my attention well-enough... but part of the way through, and as a complete non-sequitur — since there really is no way to ease up to such a thing — I cut in with, "Hey, can I paint your portrait?" If I didn't ask him at that moment, I would not be able to listen attentively to much more of the conversation, since, despite the engaging subject, my mind was already beginning to get lost in color mixes and the direction of my brushstrokes in the painting of him I was doing in my head while his voice seemed to be fading into echoing oblivion.

He replied with a twinkle in his eye that by such a request he could tell I chose only the finest-looking models to paint, and that he could therefore trust me as a great artist, and that he would gladly pose. Then he bellowed a hearty laugh and raised his glass of ale for me to do the same.

We clinked the deal right there, and went on talking about the Bible the rest of the night. I am glad to have gotten to know Dave.

I know I will paint him again.  ◙

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Progress: Anne

Yes, progress is being made, and for the most part, it's not 'ready for presentation' most of the time. To show all the steps or stages, or shoot a picture every hour on the hour would feel too much like someone is watching over my shoulder. More unnerving than creepy. Besides that, to paint something so large and make it accurate, there's a place I have to go in my head that is neither automatic nor explainable. In some ways it's mindless — not thinking about what I am painting (an eye, a cheek, a neck or hair), but rather what are the shapes and hues, values and edges that make it look good?. To snap out of such a mental place is a bit abrupt and disquieting. So I just paint on. I start, of course, with a blank canvas. This one, at 32" wide by 40" high (81cm x 101cm) stares back at me like Goliath to this Little David. "Go on... I dare you," it taunts. No it's really not that bad. Even if Norman Rockwell said it better, a blank canvas just has to be dealt with. Dangling prepositions notwithstanding. The first thing I have to do is tone the canvas. This serves at least 2 purposes: One is to get rid of all that glaring white which will effectively fool my eyes while I paint, likely resulting in too light of a painting. The second it to get a darker tone down into the valleys of the canvas weave. Often when painting, a gentle brush stroke will apply paint only to the high-points of the canvas texture, (the threads and crossovers of the woven linen) leaving the valleys (the space between threads) untouched, revealing the white acrylic (in the case of this Classens 166 acrylic-primed Belgian Linen) priming. The result is an unpleasant bright speckling, especially in darker passages. Working very quickly due to the extremely quick drying time of acrylic tube paint, with my left hand I spray a mist of water all over the surface of the canvas to wet it, then with my right hand I squeeze random squiggles of Cobalt Blue and Raw Umber Liquitex Acrylic. These are both compatible with the existing acrylic ground, and subsequent oil paint will adhere to it safely. If this were oil-primed canvas, I would have to use these colors from my oil paint supply, since acrylic cannot be painted over oil and expected to last long, if at all. Using acrylic saves waiting time. Without even taking the time to cap my acrylic tubes, I begin brushing frantically to gain an abstract thin coat of acrylic all over the surface. I do this with a moist, cheap, 1.5" house painting brush (the $1.25 kind from the warehouse hardware store whose name rhymes with Foam Depot). The already moist bristles will help the paint flow, and not grab hold of the hairs of the brush, instead. Quickly, I grab a paper towel and start dabbing and wiping, patting and dragging. The purpose here it to gain a "natural abstract" effect, with dissimilar textures throughout, while lightening the value of this tone so that it is not too dark. This texture can add interest to areas of transparency, but will mostly be covered by the final painting. It needs to be light enough to draw on with charcoal... which is my next step. A careful drawing is done with a 4B General Charcoal Pencil. The softer charcoal pencils draw darker with a lighter touch, and are easier to erase with a kneaded eraser. In the case of this painting I erased my first completed drawing after "sleeping on it" for a night. No, I did not sleep on my painting — I did the drawing in the evening and purposely did not start the painting that night, for two important reasons: 1) I wanted to give myself a mental and visual break so that my fresh eye in the morning would warn me of any corrections that needed to be made, and 2) I wanted to have a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. Before I retired for the night, I took one more look at the drawing and decided the figure was just a little too big for the composition, and having learned to trust my instincts, went to bed knowing that in the morning I would erase the whole thing and redraw it. I went to bed a little frustrated. The next day I began the drawing all over again, and when satisfied that I have a good road map for beginning my painting, I start applying the darkest of the darks, wherever they fall, and begin building a shadow pattern, constantly working wet into wet. For the curious, I have created an audio-free, short movie of the progress thus far. It's just a few aligned still-shots cross-dissolving. Note that none of it is in a finished state, even though I appear to move from section to section somewhat thoroughly. (Quicktime 7.0 or higher required. Some browsers may force you to download the entire movie before playing. The file is 2.7MB, and you may have to right-click [PC] or option-click [Mac] to properly Save the file). The entire painting, so far, can be seen here.

Still Painting Everyday...

If you have noticed a "slowing" in my postings, it is because my time is almost completely eaten up by a 32" x 40" commissioned oil portrait that will take the bulk of the rest of this week to complete. I am really enjoying this larger piece after a year of postcard-sized paintings. I wasn't sure I would. At the risk of sounding unsure of myself, to the contrary I knew it was just going to take some mental gearing-up, and didn't want that process to take too very long.

Frankly, the larger size kind of shocked me when I set it on the easel and got the drawing done. Doing mostly small works over the year, I had forgotten what such a large canvas 'felt' like staring me in the face... so much so that, in addition to the 8" x 10" sketch I did earlier, I decided to do a same-size practice (shown above) just to whip my brushes into shape and let them know we're going to be covering a lot more canvas-real-estate over the next few weeks, and dragging lot more paint here and there.

Fortunately they were listening, and caught on quickly.

Actually, the final painting, underway, is larger than the sample shown above. That canvas, shown with the quick charcoal sketch on it, and then rapidly painted, is on some cheaper canvas stock I had laying around, stretched on a smaller frame than the final, but the head and hands — my area of concentration — are same-size themselves. The scribbling off to the lower right was going to be a study of the lower hand, with the canvas rotated to 90-degrees CW... but I decided, rather absentmindedly, to just continue painting freehand down to the bottom instead of rotating to my earlier drawing.

What did I learn? Hands are harder than faces, for me. That hand area was a total mess for at least three hours, including an hour's work I just wiped right off. I guess the best part of being an old, seasoned painter is that you just know you'll get it eventually, so 'just hang in there.'

I'll be posting "segments" as I approach finish.

More Please

by David R. Darrow 6" x 9" (15.2cm x 22.9cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jeanne Piorkowski
Newton, NJ – USA

About This Painting

An entire bouquet of these deep magenta tulips was sitting on the kitchen counter overnight, and uncharacteristically for us, the large wooden blinds had not yet been opened, though already 8:30am.

This one tulip had stretched out from the bunch and nestled itself comfortably near the opening between the horizontal slats, comfortable enough, or nourished enough, from the morning light sneaking in that it had begun to unfold while the rest of the bouquet huddled together in the shadows, petals tightly wound in from the evening before, sleeping in.

This little optimist was already up and ready for the day, drinking in the reflected light but hoping for more.  ◙

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Uncorking A Moment

by David R. Darrow 10" x 7" (25.4cm x 17.8cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of John Reynolds
Noblesville, IN – USA

About This Painting

Have you ever taken a nice bottle of wine to someone's home, or along for a nice, beach-side picnic — only to discover when you arrive at your destination that you have forgotten the corkscrew?

We have.

It's the kind of event that makes you think that the most important thing about a nice wine isn't the year it was bottled, the variety, the shape of the glass or even the taste. None of those are as important as a corkscrew.

I painted this corkscrew portrait of one of our favorites — the red one (we have many, since every time we forget one we have to buy another). It's a work of art itself... sleek lines, shiny chrome, rich red finish.

To the moment!  ◙

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Raven

by David R. Darrow 8" x 10" (20.3cm x 25.4cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Harold Roe
Brentwood, TN – USA

About This Painting

Okay, so I have been "gone" for a while from my Everyday Paintings. Don't everybody write at once.

Just kidding.

Oh, man, what a month it has been. So many irons in the fire, so many projects going on, enhanced only by occasional early morning insomnia — which is where this painting began.

I didn't actually mean to do this painting. I just couldn't get back to sleep one morning at about 4am, so I looked around for something to do. TV is really boring at 4am, unless you want to see the next-generation-floor-sweeper for only wait!don'tansweryet! ... $19.95.

So, there was this scrap of canvas sitting around the studio, a year old photo of my middle daughter in a leotard in perfect chiaroscuro lighting, and some charcoal.

I felt like drawing, really... not painting. It's fun sometimes to just grab a little vine charcoal and start swinging it around like in a workshop to see what will reveal itself.

And the next thing I know, I'm doing a charcoal portrait on canvas, and it started to feel like I was teaching again, and I started pretending that — aside from my jammies — I was in front of a room full of students giving a demo, like I'll do in my upcoming Figure and Portrait Painting workshop later this year (search the Internet for more details), and this portrait just happened.

Now, I drew with the intention of painting over it — a good, solid under-drawing always helps a painting — but I did put a little more detail in the drawing than necessary.

Then I decided to set up a video camera and tape the whole painting process, start to finish, minus the charcoal drawing. I'll be able to use that as a teaching tool later.

So, this is the painting that emerged from about 90 minutes of furious mixing, scooping and dabbing. It's fairly thick paint, very painterly and 100% freehand.

Oh, and the title: Emily used to dye her hair raven black.

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Art of the Kiss

by David R. Darrow 8" x 8" (20.3cm x 20.3cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen Panel SOLD Collection of Bruce and Karen May
Vista, CA – USA

About This Painting

These little gems are an American icon. They are as ubiquitous in February as naked baby archer-angels.

As I set this up to paint, I really just got lost in any setting. It would have been even harder with an all silver-wrapped Kiss. They have only recently started showing up dressed in red.

So I just decided to pose it for a simple Vanity Portrait.

A good Kiss is art!

Don't you love the mystery on its tag? A "Kiss For..." ...whom?

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1 Year Paintiversary

Wow. That went quickly. It was one year ago today I posted my first Everyday Paintings post. I did it with the purpose of "hanging myself out there" before my friends and enemies as a way of intimidating myself into painting every day. From the outset, I thought I might just paint 5 days a week. I like to leave weekends flexible, and Sundays a traditional day of rest. That's not a religious decision, but I figure if God takes a day off once a week, I should, too. In the end — which, technically, was yesterday — I did 70 new paintings and sold 68 of them, plus several others... older paintings from my inventory. I do not know what this year holds. There is as much of real life to mix in with my goals as there ever has been, and frankly that stuff really gets in the way. Thanks for the growing readership. When I started, I think it was only my mom reading — and now it's doubled. Yes, I have two moms. Seriously, I have made quite a few new artist friends and collector friends, and the experience has been extremely helpful in my further understanding of brushes, and paint and how to push it into the right places on a canvas so that it looks kinda cool. I gotta tip my hat once more to the only person I knew of in the world, one year ago, who was doing a painting every day. Thanks, to Mr. Duane Keiser. Update Apparently something in the above suggests I will not be painting anymore. To that, I say "Rumors of the demise of Everyday Paintings are greatly exaggerated."

Sweet Heart

by David R. Darrow 8" x 8" (20.3cm x 20.3cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen Panel SOLD Collection of Patricia Harris
Ragley, LA – USA

About This Painting

If ever there was a time that a painting took discipline to complete...

As I finished each piece of chocolate in my painting, I had to resist finishing it in real life. With some degree of pride I can tell you that all the chocolates are still in the box. They all survived the tempting ordeal.

What is it with gals and chocolate? A box of chocolates as a gift can really go south on a guy. It's a risky one. You're basically giving her a gift that she can enjoy in secret and feel very guilty about the more she enjoys it.

Well, here's an alternative... an original oil painting of chocolates!

It has distinct advantages:

• It will last longer... likely for generations.
• It's not fattening (in fact, it's not edible).
• It will not melt, even over the fireplace.
• You can enjoy it with all your friends, openly.
• You can have it well in advance of Valentine's Day.
  Nothing last minute about it

The perfect heartful of chocolates!

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The Luthier

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.8cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Linen Panel In A Private Collection
El Cajon, CA – USA

About This Painting

This is a quick portrait of a luthier I admire. One of the most innovative, finest luthiers in the world.

Back in the 70s and 80s, word among acoustic guitar players was that the guitar to have was a C.F. Martin & Company D35, which, as they aged, reportedly just got better — and more expensive.

I believed that wholeheartedly until the evening a friend let me play one of this man's guitars. That night I dreamed I would one day own a Taylor Guitar.

Bob Taylor was apprehensive going into manufacturing, for what he had learned to do by hand, he wasn't convinced could be coded in to machines... his reluctance to approach mass production on guitars led to innovations in the guitar industry, development of high-precision machines and fundamental changes in guitar design — the first of their kind in over 100 years. His revolutionary neck-design is patented.

In 1974 Bob and two friends bought the company they worked for, a guitar company in Lemon Grove, CA. The following year, they had to let most of the remaining employees go, since they were out of capital. The company, renamed Taylor Guitars, made 37 guitars that year.

Needless to say, they made it through, and now turn out over 40,000 exceptional quality guitars a year, with their 350+ employees.

All of this came out of a love for quality guitars and the music they make.

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Remorse

by David R. Darrow 6" x 8" (15.2cm x 20.3cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Dan Medcalf
Indianapolis, IN – USA

About This Painting

I did this portrait of a friend and model, Stacey. I am calling the painting Remorse partly because it fits the mood of the pose, plus the style of the paint strokes. This is looser and more painterly than my usual work, but after being down for so many days, I just wanted to "get into the paint" again and just "feel" my way through the painting.

But Remorse comes to mind sometimes when I see Stacey. See, several years ago she was a waitress at a local restaurant — not a fancy place by any means. That was her living, between occasional modeling gigs she got.

One day she pulled up in our apartment complex in a brand new, black Explorer-type vehicle, looking somewhat stressed. "Well, look at you — stylin'!" I said, ignoring her expression.

She almost burst into tears. She told me she just bought it and cried all the way home from the dealership. "I don't know how I can afford this — but the salesman was so pushy."

I told her I was pretty sure she could take it back within 72 hours and get all her money back. She never did. I think she's still paying it off now, four years later.

But that day, she was the poster child for Buyer's Remorse.

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Love Song

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.8cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of David Walling
Garden Grove, CA – USA

About This Painting

For personal reasons, I just had to paint this still life. It brings back fond memories.

Music is such an important part of my life, and the piano is one of my favorite instruments. I, personally, do not play well at all, but I love a feeling pianist. If I could trade my artistic ability for any other talent or skill in the world, it would want to gain the ability to play anything I want on the piano.

With feeling.

I know a few remarkable pianists. They have put their lives into their craft, and have gone beyond the amazing skill of playing accurately to the higher, spiritual plane of expressing with music the very depths of their souls.

I know, because that's where their playing 'gets me.'

I sometimes make the mistake of watching in wonder the hands that are playing the keys, forgetting that the best music is from the heart.

I hope that I have reminded you of someone like that.

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Immeasurable Worth

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.8cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jeanne Armstrong
Savannah, GA – USA

About This Painting

At a glance, when I met this young woman, my eyes told me so many things that left an impression in my mind that within seconds I was deciding whether or not I would ask her for the favor of painting her portrait. My daughter was with me — we were shopping and had a deadline.

"Excuse me," I said to my daughter, "but I think I want to paint that woman that just walked by."

"What woman?" We both turned and looked down the aisle which was now empty.

"She must have gone around the corner. Help me look for her... she has big, beautiful eyes and gorgeous, golden brown skin." We found her a few aisles over.

After trying to convince her that I was not "hitting on her" (I gestured toward my daughter) I explained that I am a painter, and that I paint things that I find interesting or beautiful, and that I would like for her to consider allowing me to paint her face. I gave her my card, asked her to look at all the paintings on my website, and that if she would allow me, I would love to paint her sometime. I reminded her that I had not and would not ask her for contact information, but that I really would like to paint her and that if she would please agree to it, to please contact me.

Within the week she e-mailed me and told me she would like to pose for me.

After a few e-mails and calls, I asked if she would "mind posing in something kind of period or historical... like something a servant might have worn on a plantation?" I assured her that my purpose was to portray her as dignified, and with respect.

She arrived for the poses, and we tried several — all were fantastic — I kept getting distracted by all the rich colors of her face, and lavender reflections of the light off her smooth skin.

This pose stood out as the one I wanted to paint first. It conveys, to me, a sort of weariness, yet with hopefulness deep in her soul; an understanding that regardless of her circumstances, hope lay in her knowledge that to God she was of immeasurable worth.

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Homework On Hold

by David R. Darrow 4-1/2" x 5-3/4" (11.4cm x 14.6cm)
Oil on Linen Panel SOLD Collection of Kurtis Martin
Cincinnati, OH – USA

About This Painting

This cute blonde is my favorite model. She's the only model that takes my hand when we're walking through the mall together, or puts her arm around me while waiting in line.

Okay, you guessed it: she's my 14-year-old daughter Lauren.

On this particular Sunday afternoon, she had homework to do. I don't take any excuses for not doing homework — especially when her homework is for Art class, and her teacher is Keith.

Keith has been involved with all three of my kids in their high school years, and I can tell you that aside from my own high school Art teacher, Sam Uskovich, there is no one I know of that could do as fine a job. Keith is brilliant, tolerant, understanding, compassionate, funny, gregarious, (and tall), and teaches the kids very sound fundamentals — some of it is stuff I didn't learn until my Art College days!

That having been said, when I walked in and saw Lauren sitting on the couch drawing our flower vase in her Art Class notebook, I was struck by the light as it played across her face, and in her hair.

"You're just going to have to wait a while to finish your homework," I said. "I'm seeing a painting."

She's a very patient young woman.

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Wanderer

by David R. Darrow 5" x 4" (12.7cm x 10.2cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen on Panel SOLD Collection of Jeanne Armstrong
Savannah, GA – USA

About This Painting

This guy is fun to paint.

He has such distinct features that I wanted to see if they would translate to something small. And, to date, I believe this is the smallest oil painting I have ever done. If you didn't notice, the whole painting is 4" x 5" (10.2cm x 12.7cm) — a little bigger than the palm of my hand.

I painted the whole painting with a 1/4" (0.635cm) sable flat, with a 12" handle (I have to back away a bit so my bifocals work), so it is gooey and makes its own color from little globby tiles of color placed next to each other.

I was hesitant to show the "detail" shot on the auction listing, because it looks like such a sloppy mess and the displayed image of the whole painting is bigger than the actual painting! But the more I looked at it the more I enjoyed the abstract nature of the paint and brush strokes.

I'm telling you, this Dave friend of mine is just a walking painting. This is the second I have done of him. A face with a beard like this just makes me want to paint!

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Color-Balanced Lighting

One of my "daylight" fluorescent bulbs started flickering badly (annoyingly) as I was completing Simple Beauty the other day. I went to Home Depot to see if they had "Daylight" fluorescents at 48" — since the store I originally bought them from no longer stocked them. To my delight they not only had what I was looking for [Picture], but also screw-in style incandescent replacements that give off very bright light [Picture] (equivalent to a 100w light bulb in output) consuming only 27w — which is about 68% of what that little light in your oven consumes. And this bulb, which cost me $7 is guaranteed to last 9 years, and save me $73 in energy costs. How they figure that, I don't know, but I fell for it. Flipping over the packaging for the $6 Philips "Natural Sunshine" 48" tube (they also come in 24" and 18" at Home Depot) I could see that the color rating was 5000k. (Kelvin) Kelvin is a color temperature measurement; color accuracy can be seen best in the 5000k to 6500k range, with 6500k being similar to direct sunlight. By the way, Home Depot also sells 6500k "Daylight Deluxe" tubes also by Philips ($7 for 2!), but I elected to use the 5000k Natural Sunlight, presuming it would be more like indirect sunlight, and perhaps ever-so-slightly warmer. The package shows that on a 1 to 100 scale of the light providing the most accurate color perception, the 5000k Natural Sunshine bulbs were the most accurate, with a rating of 92 [Picture]. So now, with a combination of four 48" bulbs on my ceiling running above and behind me and parallel to the painting surface, plus my new 5000k palette light in an old Luxo [Picture] spring-arm lamp, I have good color-accurate lighting for painting. The addition of the color-balanced lamp near my palette has eliminated the problem of the palette seemingly in the dark as I mix, since it was noticeably farther from the ceiling lights. All the pictures taken for examples in this case were shot with the digital camera set to point-and-shoot (automatic) and absolutely no color corrections were made. I find them to be extremely, pleasingly accurate. Click here to see My Annotated Palette.

Simple Beauty

by David R. Darrow 6" x 10" (15.2cm x 25.4cm)
Oil on Panel Canvas SOLD Collection of Alexandra Carey
Belmont, CA – USA

About This Painting

There is nothing more enjoyable to paint than a woman's face that is simple, elegant and beautiful.

I prefer a face that is beautiful because of the shapes of her features, not the make-up, jewelry and sprayed-up hair that may turn a few heads, but which disappear in a rainstorm.

Classic beauty such as this is all around us: serving your restaurant meal, checking your groceries, bringing your mail. People worthy of being painted for their natural beauty are everywhere.

Alexandra's specialty is Unix.

Go figure.

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Braids

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.8cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Shinichi Matsumoto
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa – Japan

About This Painting

This may be my favorite way to paint... not all the time, of course — artists can have different painting moods — but when I can get into the free state of mind to do a nice carefree portrait in a studio or class setting, brushes swinging, turpentine in the air, with my resulting palette looking like a food fight on a dance floor, you know I have had fun!

And this model was fun. Sweet gal, with a cheerful personality. The little, thin braids made me think of my 14-year-old daughter who developed the skill of weaving thin braids like this all over her own head — front, sides and back — while watching TV or doing homework. Amazing.

This style of painting known as alla prima (all in one sitting) is the essence of studio learning. The same kind of lighting is used for intermediate to advanced students at the beginning of a painting course, such as in the workshop I will be teaching later this year, so that the shadow and light patterns can be more easily detected, and the abstract shapes they form can be more easily reassembled on the canvas or panel.

The trick is to imitate light with values in paint, diminishing detail in the shadows, letting the viewer's mind make up the missing parts and form a whole, becoming a recognizable object. In this way, an original oil painting becomes almost dynamic, with movement and life.

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For more information on my upcoming 2007 workshop click here.

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Silver Locket

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.8cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jan Geist
Tigard, OR – USA

About This Painting

Women have it on us guys.

They wear their secrets right out in the open. You see them everywhere... a dazzling gold or silver "personal safe," usually in the shape of a heart, with something inside you can only see if they let you.

There's no equivalent for men.

Don't get me wrong, I am not lamenting anything, nor am I trying to start anything between the sexes. I simply find it intriguing that women have jewelry that contains precious, sentimental or secret items. And they have purses, too.

This painting started out as a 15-minute charcoal drawing on grey-gessoed hardboardGuys? We have wallets, with barely enough room for a few credit cards, pictures of our kids, wife, a few denominations of currency and a discount card to the local art store.

But a silver locket, with all its meaning, depth, and almost Da Vinci Code secret holdings is a timeless accouterment worn by the softer gender from childhood throughout the rest of their lives, and as if by some magnificent blessing, the adornment graces them with beauty.

And one more reminder that there is such deep mystery inside.

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Storm's Brewin'

by David R. Darrow 9" x 6" (22.9cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel SOLD Collection of Deborah Moore
Celebration, FL – USA

About This Painting

I'm a Southern California native, born and raised here, so the only connection I have to the Old West, or even modern cowboys is from Westerns, books, paintings and stories my journalist buddy tells me — real working folk he's met on his travels down the back roads of Texas, Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Something that the stories portrayed about the finer men of the west is their inner sense, built on experience, mistakes, and triumphs. I always loved how the tough, quiet characters would look out at the seemingly clear horizon and just know that they were in for something overwhelming.

But beyond that, these are men who simply did their job, sunrise to sunset, heavy labor for hours, sometimes without uttering a word all day. Their conversations were with themselves. If they had concerns, worries, fears, they just worked them out in their heads, over time, day after day.

Maybe the storm brewin' inside is what taught them, giving them the sense of what nature had in store.

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Celebrate Life!

by David R. Darrow 6" x 6" (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Jeanie Schlump
Laramie, WY – USA

About This Painting

There's nothing like changing a couple of digits in the year portion of a date to let you know that the past is the past.

For me, 2006 was a difficult year in some ways, and absolutely astonishing in richness in others. I failed to reach some important personal goals, yet I'm blessed to have achieved as many as I did. God has been good to me.

We celebrate the New Year with traditional champagne and merry making — but this painting is not about the New Year, even though it is my first of 2007. It's about celebrating Life! Every morning we wake up should be celebrated. It is another gift. Nothing is set in stone, the past is behind and nothing will ever change it.

God willing, the new day set before us is ours to do with as we please, and we can waste it or use it well.

I chose the symbol of two glasses of champagne to universally represent celebration. One alone would be sad, for it is with another that celebration is most at home. I invite you to join me and Celebrate Life!

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Fresh Start

Well, there are certain markers in life that tell you to just move on. One such marker was displayed on my computer this morning as I rubbed my bleary eyes. The beginning of a New Year, with all its promise, marks also the death of the former. Nothing says yesterday is gone forever quite like the change of a digit or two in the year.

In February of what is now last year, I decided to see if I could paint one new painting every day. In fact, initially I set it as a goal. Today, I have no intention of trying to catch up. I am just going to let 2006 fade away. In many ways it was one of the worst and hardest years of my life. That having been said, I also accomplished — even amidst some personal failures — painting nearly 60 oil paintings and selling all but one of them. I will always look back at 2006 for what it brought me, and less about what it took away.

2007 carries with it a burden of uncertainty which at the moment feels greater than that of January 1, 2006. And as with most of my later years to date, I have the past to look at and see God's grace in it all, and His love and care for me, and for that I am grateful for where I am. Thus far, I have always made it through.

Now, on to the future!

I do find it interesting that my very last piece of legitimate, year-2006 e-mail (going by time-stamp) was from the Daily Painters mailing list. Is that a message for my future?

Oh, and if you are wondering what ever happened to that painting of the Christmas Cookies I announced two weeks ago... I completely lost enthusiasm for it, and so it remains "half baked" in my abandoned paintings pile. Said pile is only 2 paintings deep, however, and does not equal my unfinished paintings pile in size. The difference between the two piles is probably all in my head, and I know that these started works of art are free to travel to each other's neighborhood at any time. So, who knows?