Mexican Waitress

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jolie Elman
Glendora, CA – USA

About This Painting

In Tijuana last week, I caught this tired waitress resting on the counter waiting for tables to clear. It was a busy day that day; lots of customers and loud Mexican music blaring from the juke box– but somehow she looked all alone. And probably was, in her thoughts. It was a moment to capture.

I am a big fan of an artist named Ken Auster whose huge paintings—and even his small ones—are covered in big, bold, thick strokes of heavy paint. Because his values (light to dark range) are dead-on, his paintings, though "loosely" painted, look nearly photographic from a distance.

In this little 5 x 7, I have tried to paint boldly and thickly, and put the details only where they are most needed: in the face of the exhausted waitress at the "Taco Bell" in Tijuana. No, it's not like a Taco Bell you've ever seen. They just use that name to attract American customers. Another large sign on the outside of the building says "Do not feed the dog."

Now that's just not the way we do it here, is it? :-)

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My Funny Valentine

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jolie Elman
Glendora, CA – USA

About This Painting

Every year for as long as I can remember, my wife has gotten me a valentine from the "funny section" of the card racks. No mushball she.

This year, to my delight, she added a heart-shaped, Mrs. Fields Cookie Bar with gooey frosting. One way to make it last longer: do a portrait of it.

My friend, artist Mick McGinty, asked me if the cookie "made it to the end of the painting," admitting that he fell to his appetite when painting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was proud to tell him that yes, it did, since if I needed a new one to finish some detail, it was going to be difficult to run out and get another at that late hour in which I finished the painting.

To the best of my recollection, this is the first model I have consumed upon completion of a portrait. ;-)

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Father Phoon

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Doris Darrow
Sunnyvale, CA – USA

About This Painting

This is my brother John, creator of the crazy website Phoons.com.

He posed for this picture while succumbing to a bad fever and flu-bug, hence the fuzzy, warm hat. He looked so uncharacteristically tired and worn that I just knew it would make a great painting.

I am kind of selfish that way, sometimes.

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Watch A Video Paintcast™ of the making of this painting.

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The Warrior

by David R. Darrow 7-7/8” x 7-7/8” Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Carlyle Dallas
Farmington, NM – USA

About This Painting

This painting came about in a discussion with the model. He was someone with whom I worked a while back, and he had such an interesting face and build. Given his large size, and wild, long hair, and facial structure, I asked him if he would consider posing for a painting sometime.

Then I dropped the bomb on him: "I kind of see you as a warrior... you know, with a big furry vest on, leather sleeves, a huge turkey leg in one hand..."

To my surprise, he not only agreed to be portrayed that way, he told me that he actually owns all kinds of costumes like I had just described since he paricipates in reenactments.

He was delighted to be painted as a warrior.

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Charlotte

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Rocky and Judith Hafdahl
San Juan Capistrano, CA – USA

About This Painting

Charlotte is my aunt, and oldest living relative. She will be 91 in the next year.

We visited her a year or two ago while her husband Willis — my mom's oldest brother — was still alive. I shot lots of pictures while there.

Beyond the laughter and storytelling that always accompanied times with their family, there were a few quiet and still moments, like this one, where Charlotte just sat, thinking in the warmth of the incandescence.

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Roslyn

by David R. Darrow 5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Rocky and Judith Hafdahl
San Juan Capistrano, CA – USA

About This Painting

As I begin my journey of "Everyday Paintings" I do not know what is to be. I had the goal recently of painting 52 heads in a year... one a week.

Then it dawned on me that it would be hard to find 52 heads worthy of painting. Magazine models are too softly lit. And it's hard to find images that mimic the lighting of a studio or workshop environment.

And finding 52 people to pose was out of the question.

So I started with my photo library, and found this picture of Roslyn which I lit and shot for a "maybe painting" several years ago when she and her family were visiting. She is the daughter of Terri, with whom I went to high school from 1972-1975. Terri was in my art classes with me, and thanks to the unforeseen but eventual development of the Internet, we were able to get in contact again after decades.

When we did get in contact again, we traded family pictures by e-mail so we could see if and how the years had made changes to the high school faces we remembered.

Terri looked the same. The same young face from 25 years earlier. Only now she had a husband and a daughter. And when I looked at her daughter in the picture I saw a rare, gentle, confident beauty surrounded by flowing raven hair. I told Terri that if she was ever on the West Coast, I would like to paint her daughter.

Not many months later, they visited, and I took some time to shoot portrait photos of Roslyn, not knowing when I'd get around to painting her.

Seems like a good time, now.

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How This Began

On February 5, 2006, I decided to see if I can do 30 paintings in 30 days, and sell them on eBay. I got the idea years ago to see if I could paint 52 heads in a year—mostly to keep up my head painting skills. I actually made it a New Year's Resolution/Goal. And like most of my other such goals, never gave it much more thought... Then when checking iTunes podcasts—which are kind of a "new thing"—to see if anyone had done a podcast on "oil painting" I discovered a Video Podcast called "Paintvid" by Duane Keiser—a painter who, as it turned out, was additionally doing one painting every day, and has since late 2003. See also his blog: A Painting A Day. Well, that changed everything. I saw a guy doing wonderful paintings on a daily basis—nothing half-done or hurried—and he's stuck to it for well over a year (It does make me wonder how he has time for larger works anymore). So I decided to "get busy" and give it a serious go. Even if I can't do thirty in 30, it's a win/win situation, since it can only help my skills to work on so many paintings in such a narrow time window.