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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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?

Red Dress

by David R. Darrow 11" x 14" (27.9cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Patricia Harris
Ragley, LA – USA

About This Painting

Jacqueline works both sides of the canvas.

No, that doesn't mean she paints on both sides of a single painting support, rather that she is not only one of the most paintable fine art models in San Diego, but is also an excellent artist, too, teaching drawing and painting at her studio near Little Italy, downtown (see www.ubiquitousbee.com for more information about the studio).

The first time I painted her was for this painting. In 2000 I stepped over the edge and decided I was going to make it in Fine Art. Even with my past decades as a commercial illustrator, I knew that getting good at painting was going to require lots of practice and drawing or painting from Life. I signed up for a local workshop in Del Mar, and found myself painting for the next 15 weeks with other eager art students. At 43, I was not the oldest, either.There were 10 or 12 of us ranging from early twenties to late sixties each week, quietly struggling our way to better painting. You really have to experience painting from the model to fully appreciate the whole experience.

There are two kinds of people that make for great models: dancers and other artists. My gut feeling is that this is because they can see in their mind what the viewers are seeing, and can therefore create a great pose for the artists. Jacqueline really stood out in the collection of individual models we had in those 15 weeks.

This painting was my best of that workshop series, in my opinion, and I am certain that the model is to be credited in great part for providing inspiration.

As with most of my workshop "studies" it's time for this one to find a new home, and may prove of worth to another art student or figurative oil painting collector.

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Mexican Limes

by David R. Darrow 9" x 6" (22.9cm x 15.2cm)
Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel SOLD Collection of Ann Boudreau
Southbury, CT – USA

About This Painting

A couple of summers ago, a neighbor from across the street walked over with two small plants in plastic terra-cotta-colored pots, one in each hand.

"Would you like a lime tree or two?" she asked, holding one of them forward.

"Those are lime trees?" I asked. They were about 18" (47cm) tall, and mostly "trunk," generously speaking. With about 10mm at the base, with maybe 8 or 10 branches, what she was offering us looked just a little bigger than a seedling.

"I've had them for about a year, and now I am moving to a place they just won't grow, so if you want them..."

"Sure! And we'll make them grow some limes, someday. We promise."

"Oh, And these are Mexican limes. They are smaller than normal."

We gave one of the trees to a neighbor of ours and began a friendly contest to see whose would produce fruit first.

We won.

And now, two years later, with our careful, secret growing method involving 1. a bigger pot of soil, 2. water and 3. sunshine, the tree is about 3ft (1m) in diameter and about that tall, too. Though it now sports a 1.5" (3.8cm) diameter base, it's appears to be too small to hold the maybe 200 limes we got this year.

I figured the tree could spare a few for this painting.

Mexican limes are about the size of ping pong balls, and about as round. They are fully ripe when the rind turns yellow. The rind is only 1/16" (3mm) or less thick — probably not great for zesting — but the juice makes just about the greatest margaritas — you know, once you add sugar water and the other stuff.

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Darin

by David R. Darrow 12" x 14" (30.5cm x 35.6cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Monique Bourgeois
Tewksbury, MA – USA

About This Painting

Sunday night I gave a Portrait Painting demonstration at a local art gallery, here in Carlsbad, CA.

I decided to work through the demo from a black and white photo I had taken, which, when I work from a black and white, has two effects on the process: a lot of my values (light to dark) are easier to decide, and I have total freedom over the color, for which I tap into my memory, experience and creativity.

The head model is "Darin."

Darin is a Life Model, meaning he is scheduled at art schools in the area specifically to pose for art students in Life Drawing or Painting courses. When I was teaching an 11-week course on Anatomy for Artists, Darin was scheduled as my model one day, and I had never met him before.

Teaching anatomy with all its odd names for muscles and bones can get a little daunting as well as monotonous to first-year art students, but it is foundational stuff for painting. You have to be able to draw well to paint well. And when a human being is the subject, you can paint the wrinkles and folds of clothing much more believably if you know the shapes and behaviors of the body underneath, and you can do a better job on the body if you know what's going on under the skin, hence Anatomy for Artists.

Darin made my job a lot easier. He is built like a walking, breathing anatomy chart. He had the musculature of a Cirque du Soleil rope acrobat or trapeze artist, with every muscle visible through lean skin. Simply unbelievable.

He became one of my favorite and oft-requested male models, and I asked, at the end of the day, if I could shoot some black and white stills of his face to someday draw or paint, believing it would make for a fascinating painting. In exchange, he received a charcoal portrait of him that I did that day, which he said his mother was going to love. He's such a warm and kind man!

There is a short video which I published on YouTube and as an iTunes Paintcast™ (my name for a Painting Video Podcast) made from stills that were shot during last night's demonstration. If you use iTunes, you will get a much higher resolution playback. Search for my Paintcast™ here.

I thought I would post this brand new work, so that a collector or perhaps a budding portrait artist might own it and be able to glean something artistically valuable from being able to have, hold and study the original.

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Dancer Emily

by David R. Darrow 6" x 9" (15.2cm x 22.9cm)
Oil on Canvas mounted on Panel SOLD Collection of Faith Hudnell
New York, NY – USA

About This Painting

I had a conversation very recently about what it is that really makes people what they call themselves... or what they really are, almost as an identity.

There are many people who dance, but few are "dancers." It's hard to describe what I mean without holding up two fingers on each of my hands and dramatizing the quotes around each end of the word "dancer" to make my point.

There are musicians and then there are "musicians" — there are artists, and then there are "artists."

It goes beyond what the person does... it goes into their soul. Or maybe it's better put that what they do comes out of their soul. They live and breathe it. It comes so naturally to them, yet they continue to work at it, all their lives, never satisfied completely, yet never dissatisfied enough to stop. Always learning, always working, always improving. They must do it.

Emily is a dancer from the soul.

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San Diego Magazine Article

David R. Darrow in his home studio
San Diego Magazine, December 2006, Pg 42

A small article appears in this month's issue of San Diego Magazine about me and the concept of 'Daily Painting' and selling on eBay (it's the second article down). It's a short article, but hits all the major points on why I do what I do.

My thanks to author Julia Beeson, for her interest in my work, and for taking the time interview me. It was fun to read, and I appreciate the exposure!

I want to note to my fellow Daily Painters that in the interview I mentioned the group, the DailyPainters.com site, and even the links of several of you, but which did not make it into the article.

Taking a Few Days Off

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I am putting down the brushes and taking some time off to, among other things, be thankful during this week. I am grateful to God for the eyes he gave me that see color in shadows and differing tones in sunlight as the day passes. I am thankful that my eyes constantly perceive form, and that roses are hard to paint becasue they are just that beeautiful. I am grateful that women have curves, and that metals reflect, that every piece of fruit is as different as humans are from each other, and that real beauty is to be found beneath the skin. I am grateful for the people that come into my life, for those I will see each day, for those I may never see again, and for those I will only see on the Other Shore. I am thankful that I can make a living doing something I love, and that what I do also connects to other people. I am thankful that I live in America, where the Thanksgiving tradition has its deepest roots, and where our forefathers understood Divine Providence, from which I benefit as surely as did they. I am thankful to have been re-united with my sons this year, and to have an ongoing loving relationship with my daughter. I am grateful even for the pains of life, for I know that it builds character, which is much more important than my comfort or happiness.

Fairbanks Ranch Falls

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Carlyle Dallas
Farmington, NM – USA

About This Painting

If this looks like I have switched to doing abstracts, I haven't. This was a very fast painting. It's an oil sketch, in fact, for an intended larger painting. (If, however, you absolutely love abstracts, well then, call me Picasso and read no further. Just bid.)

In early 2005 I went plein air painting with a friend from Art Center days.

She had access to the private areas of San Diego County's exclusive gated community Fairbanks Ranch, named after Hollywood film legend Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Beyond the huge community center, dance hall and lake, there was a path that led to this little ravine, where I stood in the middle of a footbridge with my French easel, brushes and palette and quickly captured the colors and basic shapes of the natural waterfall and stream that flowed from the background and zig-zagged under the bridge beneath me.

One reason for my haste was the growing blackening sky, as a pretty decent rain storm finally put an end to our plein air day.

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Grizzled

by David R. Darrow 6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD Collection of Rocky and Judith Hafdahl
San Juan Capistrano, CA – USA

About This Painting

This is only my second-ever painting in a Western genre.

I love looking at western art, myself, because it can give me a glimpse into an era or a way of life I could never otherwise know.

When I think about the brave men, women and children that took such enormous chances working their way west to California, or the modern ones who still farm on a daily basis, grueling 14-hour days to keep the family ranch in the family, or scrape together enough of a living to feed the children, I have to give them a nod of appreciation.

When I compare their lives to mine, I have to admire what these cowboys, ranchers and wranglers do. Kinda makes me feel like pushing dabs of paint into the right places on a canvas isn't really work... but it what I do best, and seems it's all I've got.

This tired, grizzled old fella, is just resting a while after a hard day's work, thinking about tomorrow's work that'll start in a just a few short hours, not long after supper.

His "see-gar" isn't allowed in the house, so he jots down mental notes with in the barn, a list of to-dos flowing easily through his mind like the smoke from the cigar in the darkening stillness.

Here's to the tough, hardworking Americans that built this country and keep it alive.

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Ashley's Dream

by David R. Darrow 9" x 6" (22.86cm x 15.24cm)
Oil on Canvas SOLD Collection of Patricia Harris
Ragley, LA – USA

About This Painting

Ashley dreams of being a professional dancer. A ballet dancer, to be more specific.

She is the only child of a woman with whom I attended art school, and she has been raised with love and devotion. She is an energetic, healthy and happy teen. I met her when she was 14, and was immediately taken by her beautiful face, her attentiveness when speaking to her, her polite and gracious ways.

When talking to her she would look me straight in the eye, and would answer back with thought-out answers... full paragraphs... not the usual one word grunts you hear from most teens.

When she was off talking with her girlfriends, she would be fully engaged with them, talking, listening, laughing or breaking into song with them, but at the same time raising her leg high in the air, first bent at the knee, toes pointed, then straight up above her head, toes now pointed toward the heavens, all the while chitchatting with her friends who had seen this so often they didn't even notice, let alone marvel as I did.

She is simply a sweet little woman, with a sincere and lovely heart.

I hope her dream of becoming a professional dancer comes true.

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Communion

by David R. Darrow 6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel SOLD Collection of Carol Schaeper
Temple, TX – USA

About This Painting

Communion. To share in common. To break bread.

The essence of true friendship, true love.

Symbolized with the most basic elements of friends gathering around a table for intimate conversation: bread and wine. It doesn't get anymore basic than that. Nor more rich with flavor.

And yet the meaning of it all is so deep. So rich in detail, yet so ambiguous in its apparent simplicity.

For the meeting of our most basic of needs, we give thanks.

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Today's Specials

by David R. Darrow 6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel SOLD Collection of Nicole Caulfield
Keene, NH – USA

About This Painting

I haven't done a lot of traveling.

I have been an hour and a half south of the border below San Diego, CA, to Ensenada, Mexico... And I think that when I was 13 I actually set foot in Canada up there at Niagara Falls when we drove across the US on a family trip... maybe not. That was a long time ago, and I wasn't paying attention.

Anyway, you probably gather that I don't get out much.

Consequently, I don't know if the rest of the world's restaurants are like they are in America, in that any restaurant you go into whether Persian, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian; name it, they will have salt and pepper shakers on the table.

The two basic spices of life.

These condiments and their reflection on the dark, polished-wood table just happened to catch my eye on a trip to Salt Lake City, UT last year. I was there on business, and to satisfy my thirst in the evening I went in search of a good hand-crafted ale, and was directed to a warm, popular little haven called Squatter's Pub.

The ale was ice cold and delightful. If you're ever in Salt Lake City, I do recommend Squatter's.

Would you like to know what the Today's Specials were?

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Red, White and Cheese

by David R. Darrow 6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Donna Tetmeir
Incline Village, NV – USA

About This Painting

The first ever taste of wine and cheese I can remember was on a New Years morning when I was about 10. Maybe younger.

No, my parents didn't serve wine and cheese. There was just some kind of a cheese thing... not a log... not a jar... it was a wad — and they claimed it was Cheddar and Port, as I recall. I seriously doubt it was real wine in there.

Doesn't matter. I hated it. It looked like someone stirred purple cheese into orange cheese, like that brilliant idea to sell peanut butter and jelly in one jar.

And it did not taste good with chocolate.

My family always had a tradition of rising New Years Morning and watching the Pasadena Rose Parade together. (Until I moved away to go to college, I never saw it in color – we only had a black and white TV). We would watch the parade and, as a tradition, eat the weirdest snacks a boy could ever be served: wheat thins, chocolate, cheeses, smoked oysters, kippered herring — we called them "kipper snacks" — and nuts that had to be cracked out of the shells. Then there were the cheese balls coated with nuts, and this cheddar-port wad.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered how cheese and wine actually bring out the best in each other. Cheese alone is one thing, but after a sip of wine, it's altogether better! Wine alone is one thing, but after a bite of cheese? It's just better.

It's fascinating to walk down the wine aisle at the supermarket, or favorite wine store. It's also deeply puzzling. Since I don't read wine reviews or periodicals, I never know what to pick out as far as the name goes.

I tend to go by the variety first, then the label art and then the date. I guess that makes me a consumer. I tend toward labels that have names that either work with or adjust my mood. Usually, it's the ones that make me laugh, or have good art.

I find that just about any of them, red or white, and regardless of their label, go quite nicely with cheese.

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