“While I worked on this painting, I often thought about paradise,” says artist Cassandra Barney. “I was thinking about the times in my life when I have felt absolute contentment, a beautiful feeling that has come at times when I’ve lost myself in the care of others. The figure in the painting holds a strawberry, which has many associations including fertility, chastity, heaven, holy trinity, humility, paradise and purity. Fruit is considered to be evidence of God’s kindness and a symbol of his Providence. Fruit is also a symbol of good luck and several kinds of fruit frame the top of the painting. The lambs are in the care of this ever-vigilant shepherdess and she is in a state of bliss.”