Painting Demonstration - by Darren Maurer

I was invited to speak at a local artist's group here in Sioux City on Tuesday night. I have been invited to speak for them before and would normally blab on and on about painting. I still blabbed on and on about painting but decided to complete a demo while I blabbed. I needed a simple subject matter since I had only an hour-and-a-half to complete the painting from start to finish. It doesn't get much simpler than an apple. I painted from a photograph shot earlier in the day since I wasn't sure of the lighting conditions where I was going to painting. It turned out painting from the photo worked much better than painting from life would have in the space where the meeting is held. The hour-and-a-half flew by and before I knew it the painting was finished. I put the last stroke on the canvas right at 7:30 pm. (Pure Luck!) Everyone seemed to enjoy watching me paint as I thought out loud going through all my painting decisions. There were lots of great questions. I was extremely happy with the finished painting and I surprised the group by giving the painting away to one of them in a raffle like drawing at the end of the session. I think I could really get into teaching painting.