Joy of Belonging (Redle)

by Godfrey Ellis – 12×16 Acrylic Nov 2019

Joan, though she goes by the surname Aronovitch is the wife of Jim Redel. After painting Jim’s portrait (see “Jim Reflects” in the Portrait Gallery), we decided to paint Joan’s portrait as a gift for her baptism. I took the reference photo below of her in a new dress she bought for the occasion. She loved the painting but worried that her hair was messy. I took a second picture in a similar pose to get her hair combed. I still used the first photo as the reference photo because I loved how she beamed as she discovered new pathways for her life.

She proudly holds the finished portrait below. She liked it so much that she used it as her FaceBook photo.