Don Joslyn’s desk sits under a window framed by pink-trimmed white curtains. In the living room, where he paints his meticulous miniatures, his two daughters, 8-year-old Maykala and Melissa, 11, barrel downstairs and race through. A fishbowl, containing a lazy-looking goldfish, sitting next to the family’s TV set, completes the homey scene.

Joslyn, whose minute creations were featured last month on “Good Morning America” and have been in demand in the online store www.stupid.com, has good vision. The Bangor man merely takes off his wire-rimmed glasses to paint scenes of Lilliputian lighthouses half the size of a postage stamp.

Joslyn works by day at OHI, a nonprofit corporation supporting people with disabilities, and has painted for pleasure for years. Five years ago, he started doing miniature acrylics when his wife, Debbie, asked him to help decorate some of the dollhouses and dioramas she was making. After a few paintings, none of which are more than a half-inch wide, he was hooked.

“You really have to be exact,” he stressed. “You have to have a steady hand to make these paintings.”

Gary Apple, creator of www.stupid.com, discovered some of the Maine artist’s teeny pieces on eBay and was taken by their novelty. Stupid.com sells jokes and off-the-wall stuff. Apple decided to feature Joslyn during his monthly segment on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He promptly sold all 20 of the lighthouse paintings that he’d commissioned. At $18.99 a pop, that’s pretty good cash for a self-taught, work-from-home artist.

Joslyn is now working evenings and weekends to create another batch of paintings to sell. He paints larger works too, ranging from 2-by-3-inch acrylics to full-scale oils. He paints other subjects too, from birds to people.

But it’s the itty-bitty pieces that set the 44-year-old artist apart. It takes him a few hours to complete each one. He used to paint at the coffee table, but now has a desk devoted to his craft. He’s produced more than 2000 to date.

To see Joslyn’s work, call him at 941-6465 or visit his Web site at http://hometown.aol.com/joshf5, where some of his paintings are also on view.

“I’ve been doing this for years,” he reflected. “It’s my hope that I can devote a lot more time to it now. I love to paint.”

– Emily Burnham