This image was painted shortly after Elizabeth and Pierre died. This is your humble web designer, Leo, studying HTML and web design at the dining room table. On the table are salt and pepper shakers, a trivet and place mats from the home of Pierre and Elizabeth. Above his head is a basket that Barb painted years ago. Behind him, on the wall, is a wicker roll-up screen that she had there for colour and texture.

On the table is her favourite table cloth. The lamp is throwing soft illumination on the scene. It is early evening, shortly after supper and Barb is feeling comfortable and happy. After all of the turmoil and upset of dealing with the two deaths, this was a moment of peace and contentment. She saw Leo studying at the table with comforting items around and took a photo to remind her of the moment. The photo turned out well and she decided to paint it.

Barb likes to start from anything other than a white canvas. She maintains that her job is to make the canvas “not white” – so she starts by giving it a wash of colour. She usually uses black but she decided to use a rich crimson for a change. As she painted the scene, the red grew on her. When she painted the over the red with the true wall colour, she discovered that she really did prefer the red. (Leo never did paint her walls red, though he was tempted!) So the red went back in and stayed.

When Leo emailed this picture to his Mother, she had to ask “Is that really your hairline?” Leo had to reassure her that, “Yes Mom, that really is what my hair line looks like these days”.

This painting represents another stage of growth of Barb as an artist. She experimented quite a bit with the placement of the lines – adding, moving and removing lines until she was satisfied.