Ashton's Morning

by David R. Darrow 14" x 11" (35.6cm x 27.9cm) Oil on Canvas Panel

About This Painting

Ashton is a young woman I met when her family was on vacation to Carlsbad, CA.

She had me at the Coke machine.

Really! I was walking by the soda fountain on my way out the door to the back patio with my new, ice cold Palapa Pale Ale at Pizza Port when this striking beauty with large, dark eyes and cascading black curls turned towards me as she finished filling her glass. She smiled and turned to return to her table.

I have to paint her.

I followed her to her table, where she joined her family. Her mother and father, also very attractive people, looked at me with raised eyebrows as I stumbled through my introduction, telling them I am a real artist – "See, here's my card, and it has one of my paintings on it..." – asking them if I could possibly arrange some time to paint their daughter.

They both looked at her.

She gave a look to her dad that was sort of a wide-eyed head-shake that communicated Hey, I don't know any more about this than you do, but it sounds fun! They explained to me that they were just down here on vacation, but if they could squeeze in some time before heading home, they would call me.

They called and dad brought his 17-year-old treasure over to my studio for a quick photoshoot. It is rare that I have gotten so many paintable reference pictures in such a short time. She's as photogenic as she is beautiful, but her face, eyes, head-shape, hair and mouth are as easily paintable as anyone I have ever met.

And she's a truly sweet soul.

* * * This painting was completed on my Dave the Painting Guy live broadcast.

It s available as an 11 x 14-matted giclee in my online store. ◙

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Reclining Nude 2

by David R. Darrow 10" x 8" (25.4cm x 20.3cm) Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD Collection of William Rowett New London, New Hamshire – USA

About This Painting

This nude was painted as a demonstration on my live broadcast Dave The Painting Guy (My free, live, Internet broadcast). ◙

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Morning Light

30-minute backyard sketch. 6:45am.

Oceanside Harbor Sketch

15-minute color sketch in gouache [gwahsh], which is opaque watercolor. On the days we want relax, but also "get out" my wife and I find ourselves often landing at the Oceanside Harbor about 15 miles away. It's always quite relaxing, with tourists walking about, fishing boats trolling in and out, sea gulls and pelicans diving in and out like planes in a war movie. We sit at Robbin's Nest, a little restaurant with outdoor seating at the corner of the harbor.

Samuel Gompers

by David R. Darrow 8" x 10" (20.3cm x 25.4cm)
Oil on Canvas Panel
This painting is not framed Click here to see it bigger
Price: $295

About This Painting

Next Dave The Painting Guy show: Today, Wednesday, 5pm Pacific Time (GMT -8)

This past Monday, I relaunched my Dave the Painting Guy streaming internet show (website link) after over a month off the air, a month off from any painting (other than walls), and a month of packing and relocating to a large enough home to comfortably accommodate my wife and I, our individual home businesses, my art studio, and occasional guests and family-member sleep overs.

Somehow Labor Day seemed like an appropriate day top get back to work. So I announced my intentions to go on the air again to subscribers to my notification list... and then set about trying to figure out what I would paint fro the show.

As always, careful planning and meticulous forethought are not my strongest gifts.

So it seemed Labor Day might have some interesting faces associated with its history, and sure enough, this interesting man, whom I painted as a demo on the show.

Samuel Gompers, according to Wikipedia "...helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions. In 1886 it was reorganized into the American Federation of Labor, with Gompers as its president. He would remain president of the organization until his death (with the exception of one year, 1895)."

And he had a pretty nice face for a painting demo.

(You can see the recorded clips on my ustream channel).  ◙

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Black Dress

by David R. Darrow 11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Panel
SOLD Collection of Bob Camp
Cincinnati, OH – USA

About This Painting

I've just moved into a new-to-us residence/studio with my wife Teresa, and am very excited about my new studio... it's the perfect setting to reintroduce my Internet Video Show Dave the Painting Guy which I will have on the air again this week.

From the new studio in Encinitas, CA!

One of the last paintings I did on the air from my old studio in Oceanside, CA was this one I have titled Black Dress.

I liked this woman's face can curly hair, so I asked her if I might pain her sometime, noting that I would kind of like to direct the lighting... she agreed, asked her daughter to photograph her – following my instructions – and sent me several to choose from. I liked this composition best.

I decided to paint this one live on my show, keeping it heavy and painterly, and also decided to experiment a little with the start: I started the painting with my reference photo upside down as a means of forcing my mind to see abstractly, to get the shapes right. (Watch the first in the video clip series)

The result was very pleasing to me, and the painting sold immediately...

...to her husband.  ◙

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Signed, Framed, Delivered: It’s Yours!

My wife and I delivered my commissioned portrait of Mariam directly to her place of work yesterday. Rather than having me bring the painting to her office, which she felt would certainly lead to unwanted ribbing from her already tease-prone coworkers, she met us in the lobby, complimented the portrait, asked for a little stack of my business cards and walked directly out to the parking garage to sequester the painting from prying eyes. She later wrote that she took a few trusted friends to the garage gallery and showed them, which garnered the art work still more compliments. Note: This painting was painted in its entirety live on the Dave the Painting Guy Show.

Jen

by David R. Darrow 8" x 16" (20.3cm x 40.6cm) Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Renée Richardson Washington, DC – USA

About This Painting

I try to make a habit of painting strangers. In fact, my business card which bears a sample of my oil portraiture makes reference to my interest in strangers with my tag line "Beautiful Strangers: Oil Portraits of Friends I Don't Know."

Now, usually I reserve my canvas manipulations for the likenesses of people I have met and asked to paint. But the other day I painted a total stranger as an alla prima painting demonstration for the viewers of my almost-daily painting show Dave The Painting Guy (Google It).

1 of the 4 video clips of this painting being created can be found at: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/403211 

"Jen," as I have since discovered her name to be, left a comment on one of my painting photos on Flickr.com, and so I jumped over to her collection to look at her paintings. Seeing only thumbnails there, I thought that one of the shots was a wonderful painting so I clicked the thumbnail to look at it more closely only to discover that it was actually an out of focus cell-phone picture she had shot.

So, I wrote to her and asked if I could do a painting... an artistic interpretation of that shot. She gave me permission, and the rest is history.

It was a fun painting to do... the angle of the head, the elegant lines of her neck, her curly hair. Beautiful women make for beautiful paintings.  ◙

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An Archival, Fine-Art Giclée of this print is available: e-mail me for details. To subscribe to my free "Art In Your InBox" Newsletter, just click here.

Megan

by David R. Darrow 11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas
SOLD Collection of Jose Arce
Jacksonville, IL – USA

About This Painting

Last June, I was very excited about an article that came out about me and my portrait painting, and was celebrating at my favorite custom-brew house, Pizza Port in Carlsbad, CA, handing out copies of the the San Diego Reader which contained the article about me, trying, to no avail, to get someone to think I was a big deal and buy me a beer.

A gorgeous, young woman walked by with lovely eyes and beautiful curls in her long, deep-red hair, and so I whipped out my business card which has my website on it, and asked her if I might paint her.

The next day she called, and she and her boyfriend Mike came over for a quick photo sitting for an eventual painting. Last November, I held a painting workshop for artists in Southern California, and used a large photo of Megan from that shoot to demonstrate my painting methods, concentrating on Values and Shapes, and how to quickly get a good likeness.

I only painted for 45 - 60 minutes, and did not finish the painting at that workshop.

Fast Forward

A few weeks ago, I began broadcasting a painting show on the Internet from my studio. It's a free-to-anyone show called "Dave the Painting Guy" (Google it). As one of my many demonstrations to date, I decided to complete this portrait of Megan. The entire process (except for the first hour) was recorded and saved for viewing, with segment 1 found here: www.ustream.tv/

On that internet show, people can log in and "chat" via a text window, and I can answer questions via video and audio. It's a very casual show, with lots of laughs, and honest, straight-forward answers to viewers' questions. You can also log in there and watch this "episode" and others to watch this painting reach completion.   ◙

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New Show: Dave the Painting Guy

I've renamed my Internet-streamed show Dave the Painting Guy. I am working on a portrait commission. I move the camera as I jump to different areas. Next Broadcast: Broadcasting on andd off today... and most days. Check in and see if it's on! If you follow this link to the uStream.tv site, you can log in and/or create a user-name and text-chat with me. I do take questions. By obtaining a User-name there, you can leave comments, rate the broadcast, and chat (text) live while I'm working. (Please be patient, I am still working out the kinks).

Interview With Art & Prose Magazine

The kind folks over at Art & Prose Magazine did an interview with me last month, featuring my painting Carmen on the cover, along with 9 additional reproductions of specifically-requested artwork of mine inside. It's a fascinating magazine, geared to technical and creative people with disciplines ranging from fantasy writing, to computer model making, to poetry and traditional art methods. This interview came from out of the blue, and being featured on the cover of Volume One, Issue 8 is something for which I am very grateful to John Johnson and the rest of the crew at A&P.

Lora: Commissioned Portrait

by David R. Darrow 16" x 20" (40.6cm x 50.8cm)
Oil on Belgian Linen
Not For Sale
Private Collection

About This Painting

Lora got in touch with me shortly after the San Diego Weekly Reader article, about me and portrait painting, came out mid-last year.

She wanted me to paint her portrait after reading about my thoughts on painting, God and beauty, and after seeing my work.

Ironically, perhaps, it was in this article I was quoted as saying that as of that time I had not received any commissions from women for portraits of themselves. And I speculated as to why.

Lora's approach changed my thinking. She wanted to capture this moment in time for a number of personal reasons, some of which she shared with me, and which made painting this portrait that much more engaging. She also wanted to own original art, for all the best reasons.

I only hope I captured the kind and thoughtful spirit of the woman I came to know while painting her. She tells me she loves it.  ◙

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