Bananas On 115

There are so many ways for a painting to come into existence. This one took a bit of a unique path.

 
It all started with a morning walk through the neighborhood with my dog Scruffy. A tight beam of light shown down the steep hills surrounding us, illuminating only one banana plant at the edge of our property. It happened to be a particularly fascinating moment in the plant’s life. 

Only a few of the bananas had turned a magnificent golden ripe yellow. Down the stalk the color gradually transitioned into a deep forest green, terminating in a richly purple flower. Brightly lit in the morning sun it stood out starkly against the shade-soaked jungle. I wanted to paint it.

I took a picture, which I thought was stunning, but like so many digital memories the picture disappeared into the recesses of my phone. My wife, Daisy, found it. She was inspired to write a few words about our banana plant and shared it. Daisy received so many comments and compliments on the picture, that I even heard about it.

I was just about to forget about the picture again, when I was approached by someone at Artwalk: “Do you paint on commission?”  - “Absolutely!”, I replied. “Well, your wife Daisy posted this gorgeous picture of a Banana tree. Do you think you could paint that for me?” 

I was ecstatic about this request, and I could not wait to get started. I exchanged contact information with my new client. But this project was not ready to stop its twists and turn just yet. The next message I received contained an image of Bad Bunny’s new album cover as inspiration. “Oh boy”, I thought, “I know where this is going!”.

For the next few months, we drove around town with white plastic lawn chairs in my back seat, hunting for the same killer light and beautiful banana plants. I just could not get a lock on my motif. At the height of the dry season every banana was now a crumbled brown mess.

Finally, we were driving down 115 where a new Southeast Asian restaurant had opened: “Woody’s” second incarnation. Predictably my wife wanted to try them out. In the restaurant’s parking lot, I found the most gorgeous row of bananas I had seen in a long time. Under the amused looks of the proprietor, I pulled my lawn chairs out of the car and set up my scene. I took another separate shot of the Rincon/Anasco hills, which were not quite in the background, but off to the side.

Over a few months I worked closely with my client, who had a lot of wonderful input. I drew several versions, one with two chairs and finally the one you see today, I went back to Woody’s for more pictures and used the many-colored Banana Bunch from the original photo as the main focal point and reference.

It is one of my favorite paintings now. It has so much Puerto Rican Spirit, but also a great dose of the exuberant love we have for this place. The picture is clobbered together just like our community in Rincón, glued together with lots of love and serendipity.