WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A West Palm Beach man's paintbrush has helped him land one of his portraits on the wall of a South Florida tennis star's home.
It all happened after Kyle Lucks' portrait of tennis sensation Coco Gauff, a Delray Beach native, went viral on social media.
For many of us, art was just a class we took in school.
However, for Lucks, it's a way to express himself and capture some of life's most interesting moments.
He credits his mom for teaching him the limitless opportunities of a blank canvas.
"Art runs in my mom's side of the family," Lucks said. "As early as I could hold a pencil, I was using a colored pencil. I was finger painting."
The kid who was once a finger painter quickly became a talented painter.
When he was younger, a painting he did of Michael Jordan was featured in the magazine Sports Illustrated Kids.
"I get a ton of ideas, and it's not always painting on canvas, but it gives me an outlet to do what I think I was put on this earth to do," Lucks said, 'which is to create things out of thin air and share them with people."
During the U.S. Open last year, he was in awe of Gauff's title run and decided he wanted to pay homage to her success.
"I had heard of Coco a few years ago," Lucks said. "She's a teenage phenom, but to see her win this and watch the finals and the emotional reaction that she had, it just made for a great story."
In six weeks, he painted a portrait of Gauff holding and kissing the U.S. Open trophy with several faces on it — including former No. 1 tennis player Billie Jean King, who handed Gauff the trophy the day of her victory.
He posted the painting on Instagram and tagged Gauff.
"She saw it, and she reached out," Lucks said.
The tennis star messaged him on Instagram and asked to buy the picture.
Last week, the two met up in Delray Beach to exchange the portrait and take selfies.
"This is amazing," Lucks said. "This is how I would like for the story to end, for her to have this piece of original artwork in her home in Delray Beach. It just gives me goosebumps just thinking about it."
Not too bad for a kid who started as a finger painter.
Click here to learn more about Lucks and his artwork.
