For Monet, it was water lilies.
    For Degas, ballerinas.
    For second-grader Sarai Torres, a participant in Whole Foods Market’s tile-painting event at McGrath Elementary School, it was pineapples.     “I picked (pineapples) because it’s my favorite fruit,” said Torres, 7, as she traced the prickly fruit onto a square plastic tile. “I like drawing the spikes.”
    Torres was one of more than 130 local children invited Tuesday to paint pictures of fruits and vegetables on tiles that will adorn a wall in Whole Foods when it opens late next month in Valencia.
    “The kids just love this activity,” said Tina Landrum, marketing specialist for the Santa Clarita Valley’s first Whole Foods franchise on Valencia Boulevard, across from the Town Center mall. “We’re aware that we’re in a community of families and kids, so we’re trying to do things to reach out to that community.”
    Many of the children in attendance were enrolled in summer school classes at McGrath Elementary.
    “The kids love anything that they can be hands-on with,” said Rebecca Wessel, a second grade teacher at Wiley Elementary who brought her class to the event. “Art works is a great way to stimulate them.”
    Whole Foods provided the children with paint, brushes and fresh fruit for modeling, encouraging the young artists to let their imaginations run wild.
    Paint A Dream, a private ceramics company that helped organize the event, pledged to glaze and fire the tiles, and to prepare them for an unveiling in late August.