The Bandanna (Garcia)

by Godfrey J. Ellis – 16×20 acrylic 2020

There is a Hispanic restaurant owner near where we live who has a little hole-in-the-wall place called, Don Garcia’s.  In his restaurant, he has a huge, framed photo of him much younger in a cowboy hat and with his name, Don Garcia, splashed across the photo.  He is quite the character. Merry and I have sort of made friends with him.  Not that we have ever seen him outside the restaurant, but I always throw around my extremely limited Spanish when we go in and he always comes over to our table to say hello.  It’s a lot of fun.  Like so many small restaurant owners, he is struggling. I wanted to encourage him by painting his portrait.  So, about two months ago, I took a photo of him with my cell phone.  I’m sure he has forgotten.  I would like to go in, have a dinner, and then pull out the portrait and give it to him as his “tip.” Of course, it has to have his name on it – that’s his personality.  And I made up letters with jagged white around them because … well, that’s his personality!  I hoped it would mean a lot to him and encourage him.

About a month later, we went in and had dinner at his restaurant.  At the end of the meal, we asked him to call his wife (the cook) out of the kitchen and to call over his sister (one of the servers).  Then we said we wished we had lots of money to give them a huge tip, but we were retired so we couldn’t do that.  He said, “The only tip we need is to know you enjoyed the food.”  (What a sweet man.)  But I replied, “Well, I do have a tip for you, but it’s a different kind of tip.”  Don had to translate all this for his wife who spoke little English.  Then we pulled out the portrait and gave it to him.  His wife immediately gave a loud gasp and then said, “That ees for me!” and took it.  “Gracias! Gracias!” she said to us.  Don was also very excited.  He joked, “Can you see me smiling under the mask?”  Then he said, “Next time you come in, it will be right there!” pointing to a spot on the wall.  One of the other customers called them over to their table and took a photo of it.  And, yes, we still had to pay for our dinner!  We even left a cash tip for our server, probably another family member….

Here is a photo of Don, his wife the cook, and his sister a server holding the painting.

Recently, we returned to his restaurant for a wonderful meal and found the portrait. Here it is, framed and up on the wall in his restaurant. It’s next to another one I did of him at 17 years old.

Below are two stages in the painting. I had the most difficulty – not in the bandanna, which was the most fun – but in the nose.