This is part of the Jamaican restaurant series. Barb has a friend who owns the local Jamaican restaurant . He moved to a new location. When she saw that his new walls were bare, she decided to decorate! Barb is usually a serious painter. With this series, she decided to take a much lighter hearted approach and to paint with abandon. In spite of her best efforts, in this painting, some of her usual discipline reasserted itself.

When she decided to paint something to do with pineapple, she researched pineapples. She soon found out that the grow on the tops of stalks – like thistles! Who knew! She came across a picture of a pineapple field and knew that this is what she wanted to paint.

We went to the local grocery store and looked for pineapples. Leo lined about a dozen pineapples in a row and modelled each of them for Barb. We tried to interview them on their views on pollution, sexism, racism etc. But the refused to play along. They knew this was a beauty contest and choose to remain silent. In the end, it was a passer-by who helped us to choose the most beautiful pineapple.

So for about a week, as Barb painted this painting, she had the smell of pineapple wafting in the studio and the site of a beautiful pineapple as inspiration. At the end, it was a great tasting pineapple as well.

She does not know if she will ever again have the experience of painting a subject with such a wonderful and inspiring smell. She enjoyed the experience and when she recalls painting this one, it is the enjoyment of the smell of the pineapple that she recalls the most.

The day she finished the painting, she took it out with us on an outing. (She does this often – she calls it “Taking her painting for a walk”.) We ran into a patron from the restaurant, who is from Jamaica. She called him over and showed him the painting. Just for a moment, his completely blissed out. His face was filled with peace and joy. For Barb, that was one of her most satisfying moments as a painter.