Painting Dreams

By Anna Carey

Illustration: Shutterstock

UPLIFTING SHORT STORY WRITTEN BY LISA ALLEN

Could Gina’s brush with the unknown bring more colour into her life? Or might it turn out to be a dismal washout?

Gina wheeled her suitcase across the airport lounge, her heart thudding with excitement. Around her, tourists and businesspeople were drinking coffee, their heads buried in laptops and newspapers. Flight attendants in spotless uniforms stood ready at the boarding gates with bright smiles and suntanned faces.

Among all these people, Gina suddenly felt very alone. Usually, she would have been with her husband. Or huddled with her group of girlfriends.

She glanced at the flight tickets clutched in her clammy hand: Return LDN to MAD. Maybe she was mad to be doing this alone? She’d never been abroad solo before; never thought of herself as the adventurous type, preferring her home comforts and security of loved ones around her.

Gina gazed around the noise, strangers and suitcases, her eyes falling on a family. While the parents chatted, two young children scribbled bright crayons across a sheet of paper. They were drawing a picture of an aeroplane, a bright sun in the sky, and stick people smiling from the aeroplane windows.

The picture suddenly reminded Gina why she was doing this. To achieve her own childhood dream.

“Last call for Flight 735 London to Madrid!” boomed the Tannoy overhead. With renewed hope, Gina gripped her suitcase handle and strode towards the boarding gates. It was now or never.

A Spanish taxi pulled alongside the high ornate gates of a large residence.

“Gracias!” Gina smiled as the driver heaved her suitcase onto the dusty pavement before driving off.

Her heart fluttered as she pressed the gate buzzer. It felt strange being somewhere so different and far away from home by herself.

“Welcome to the art retreat!” A voice crackled through the intercom as the electronic gates slowly opened to reveal a stunning white villa veiled by tall, curving palm trees, big-leafed green bushes and bright tropical flowers. “Follow the path and you’ll find us.”

The shaded, winding path opened up to a beautiful courtyard. A cluster of artists’ easels set with canvases, paint palettes and brushes stood in a corner.

On the far side was a large swimming pool and a covered outdoor eating area hosting a group of eight strangers.

Gina wheeled her case towards them, an anxious knot tightening her stomach.

I’m out of my comfort zone, she thought as she unpacked her clothes and art materials in her room. Naturally shy, the sudden reality of spending a whole week with strangers filled her with dread.

Would anyone talk to her, or would she find herself feeling even more alone?

“What brings you here?”

A woman of similar age, Sammy, glanced up from her painting and smiled across to Gina. The group were painting flowers after a watercolour masterclass from their tutor, Carmel.

Gina smiled shyly back.

“I’ve loved drawing and painting ever since I was a little girl. I’d always dreamed of making a career out of it, but life took me in a different direction. This is the first time I’ve picked up a paint brush in a decade.” Her cheeks pinked, suddenly feeling she’d over-shared.

“This trip is my post-divorce gift to myself. Painting is good for the soul, I’ve been told.” Sammy tinkled her brush against the water jar, grinning. “This is my first ever solo trip overseas.”

“Mine too!” Gina felt her shoulders relaxing. “You should have seen me at the airport – I nearly didn’t board…”

The artists’ week flew by quicker than the swirl of brushes and colours washing across canvases. They painted street scenes and parks, sampled local cuisine, watched flamenco dancing in bars and toured famous art galleries.

Gina’s head was a whirl of creative joy as she filled her art pad with sketches and notes. And she realised, as they swapped numbers before their flights, she’d made more friends this week than she had in the last decade.

Any doubts she’d harboured were completely washed away.

Pushing through the airport doors out into the grey London autumn rain, the Mediterranean sun was still shining over Gina like a golden heart. Hauling her heavy suitcase into a waiting cab, she felt the strongest she’d been in a long time.

She was returning with a rucksack full of beautiful paintings, a head full of creative ideas and wonderful memories, and the determination to start the design business she’d always dreamed of.

The next part of her journey was about to become even more exciting.