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My latest project is an imagined portrait of my fourth great-grandfather, John Goldsmith, born 1757 in Albermarle, Virginia. As no photos exist of him, I based his likeness on that of my great-grandfather as seen in old family photos. In the oldest photo, my great-grandfather had a beard; in later photos, he had a white mustache. Men in the late 1700s and early 1800s rarely sported facial hair, so I "shaved" John Goldsmith for this portrait.

John married Jane Powell in 1776 and shortly thereafter enlisted as a private in the 9th Virginia Regiment, serving with Captain Samuel Woodson's Company. He was discharged at Valley Forge.

His first son, Samuel, was born in 1776; son Wesley followed, 1787. Daughter Polly was born 1791 and Matilda in 1795. His last child, John, was born in 1799. Wesley is my third great-grandfather.

John and Jane made their home in North Carolina before going further west into Casey County, Kentucky, and Bullitt County, Kentucky. where on July 4, 1825, he applied for a pension for his military service during the Revolutionary War.

His pension application tells a story of hardship. John describes himself as a bricklayer by trade, now old and infirm and deriving no support from his grown children who have moved away. He has been forced to sell many of his possessions in order to pay doctor bills for his wife Jane. He lists his possessions as one cow and calf, thirteen head of small hogs, two chairs, household furniture, a broad axe, plough, small garden hoe, and shovel.

Just three months later, John died, October 30, 1825.

To reflect his trade of bricklayer, I painted a ghostly image of bricks near the lower border of the painting. I dressed him in the clothes of a farmer or laborer, yet painted the background in the warm umbers seen in many formal portraits of the period. I used a limited palette of colors in his skin tones and rough brush strokes in order to reflect his station in life, yet I captured the blue eyes so prevalent in subsequent generations of our Goldsmith men.

In order to tell his story, I surrounded his portrait with some of the details of his life, written in white charcoal and pastel pencils.

Finally, I framed the board in an old window frame which came from the house built by my maternal grandparents. My maternal grandmother, Ada Frances Goldsmith Clark, was the great-great-granddaughter of Patriot John Goldsmith. The house that once bore this window frame was the house where my mother was raised and a generation later where I was raised.