Goggles (Ellis)

by Godfrey J. Ellis — 12×12 Acrylic Nov 2020

Goggles was painted as a gift for a young woman with three bright redhead children. She is currently going through a divorce and needs a boost. After she said on Facebook that they didn’t have money for a Christmas, I decided to paint one of her children. He was playing in my son’s swimming pool while he was wearing these over-sized goggles. I took the photo and immediately wanted to paint it anyway. He Facebook post sealed the deal.

The original photo only captured him from the chin up, so I had to digitally add some material to the bottom. You might be able to see that in the reference photo below.

This fun little painting went through a lot of change as I tried to figure out how to paint the water and the obscuring goggles. Here is a photo of Mom (Cherie) holding the painting, which she liked a lot.

Below are four photos of the painting as it took shape.