John & Helga

John was my mother's younger brother. He passed in March of 2011. He was about 80. I visited my Aunt Helga in July of 2014. She talked about Johnny constantly. I decided then that I would do a portrait for her for Christmas. The photo I used was from their honeymoon. The surprise here was including Helga in the portrait because she had to supply the photos.

The challenge here was Helga's Beehive hair doo. It took a while, and I'm very happy with the result.

A funny story about this same hair doo; the first time I visited John & Helga at their home in Cleveland, I told Helga, my mother had told me that Johnny's first and second wives had also had beehives. When I saw her again a few years later the beehive was gone, replaced by a much shorter cut. She said she had it cut 3 days after my last visit.

This portrait is about 15 x 17 inches, done in pencil and white acrylic paint on acid free mat board.