by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 This portrait is of our friend, Carol Nies’s, 18-year-old granddaughter, Ciara. Her hair is yellow one day and pink the next. Is the painting any good? I guess art is in the eye of the beholder. The abstract background was my first attempt at what is called […]
Category: Friends
Fire in the Forest (Rafn)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 This is the wife of Mark Rafn. He liked his own “Good Samaritan” portrait so much that he wanted one for his wife as a Valentine’s gift. I was interested in doing it because I was intrigued at how bright her auburn hair shone as the light […]
The Good Samaritan (Rafn)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 I grounded the car on a cement curb one early and still-dark Sunday morning. After Church, Mark Rafn came out to take a look. He was a 42-year-old young man who was suffering with terminal cancer. He immediately insisted on getting down on the ground and cut […]
The Joy of a Leaf (Mortinson)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 Thrilled with the portrait of Mark, the Mortinsons asked if I would paint their autistic grandson who found a huge maple leaf outside. I liked his joy as he proudly showed it off. She offered to pay for it but was aghast when I suggested $100. She […]
Congo Pride (Kayij-Wint)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 One of my favorite students, who went on to earn a PhD and become a colleague, was Kaj Kayij-Wint. I offered her a painting of her child and she asked for her mother, Kona, instead. Kona is 72 years old and extremely soft spoken with a habit […]
Saintly Inspiration (Mortinson)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020 This is one of my favorite portraits. It is a painting of Mark Mortensen, a very sweet, gentle man suffering with Parkinson’s. There are technical mistakes but I felt like I captured the saintly tone of this sweet man. I wanted to capture not only his likeness […]
Bay of Bengal (Jolley)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 15×30 Acrylic Dec 2019 Our good friends, Allen and Janine Jolley, spent 18 months on a service mission in far-off India. Of the thousands of photos that they took while there, I loved this one the most (once cropped). It is a photo of them standing on the shore of […]
Brothers (Robles)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – Dec 2019 acrylic 12×16 We invited our neighbors, the Robles family, to the Church Christmas party on Dec. 6, 2019. We had fun watching their 17-year-old son, Lewis (“Bobby”), interacting with his brother. The 5-year-old, Danté, spent most of his time on Lewis’s lap or playing games with his brother. […]
Loving Sisters (Schnell)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 Acrylic Dec 2019 I offered my friend, Ken Schnell, a painting of his two cute daughters, Sophie, 8, and Amelia, 9 years old. I drove over to his house and did a photo shoot. This sweet photo of the two Schnell girls hugging each other in their back yard, […]
The Loving Imp (Delimont)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 8×10 Acrylic Dec 2019 I taught Church Primary class in 2017 and had a little boy named Jarom in the class. He was smart as a whip but, phew! What energy! He would run around the classroom hitting the other little boys and standing on the folding chairs. He didn’t […]