Location of Original:
Victoria, BC
Acrylic on Canvas
18” by 20”
2005

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.

This is Ackee. Ackee is not indigenous to Jamaica. It was originally imported from West Africa, probably on a slave ship. It grows well in Jamaica and is Jamaica’s National Fruit. The unfairly maligned, Captain Bligh of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame (actually a competent scientist and gifted astrogator), brought some of the plants to England. Hence the latin name—Blighia sapinda.

Ackee is poisonous when unripe. It only becomes edible when the end opens as shown in the top fruit. Jamaica is the only place where the fruit is general recognized as an edible crop, even though the plant has been introduced into most of the other Caribbean islands, Central America and even Florida. Ackee is usually quite bumpy and rough. However, some varieties are smooth as shown in the painting.

At Barb’s friends restaurant, you can order Ackee and Salt Fish. It is quite tasty. However, Barb has often heard asked “What is Ackee?” For that matter, she often wondered herself. So she decided to research the matter and to paint these. She is quite pleased to think of her friend pointing at her painting and declaring “That is Ackee!”