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With all eyes on the south coast of Barbados, Erica Bush checks into the newly relaunched, all-inclusive O2 Beach Club & Spa


DESTINATIONS BARBADOS | CARIBBEAN


easel in front of us – a backdrop of rolling waves and afternoon sunshine behind her – and shows us how to use a small piece of cardboard as a painting tool. We stare at her blankly from the shade of a large manchineel tree, our toes in the sand, wondering when a paintbrush will come into play. It doesn’t. Instead, we dip our piece of cardboard into acrylic paint and drag it along the canvas to form the blended colours of a sunset, using the cardboard’s edge to define palm trees and rocks. Yasmin is unfailingly


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Aerial view of O2 Beach Club & Spa’s beach and pool


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encouraging. Dressed in a pink T-shirt and a straw hat adorned with brightly coloured flowers, she peers over our artwork with a knowing eye and a “Can I?”, before holding the canvas


asmin Vicarrondo likes to do things differently. She stands next to an


herself and making small, deft enhancements. When we’re done, I hold my painting up to the sky and squint at the finished product. Yasmin was right – cardboard does work.


AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES Our beachfront painting class is one of several new masterclasses at O2 Beach Club & Spa, a newly relaunched hotel on the south coast of Barbados. Connecting guests with the island and its people was a key aim when the hotel reopened at the end of last year, and it offers a range of 30-minute ‘how to’ experiences – from how to make your own body scrub to how to play the steel pan – that guests can sample as and when they please. The resort is also rolling out ‘learn to’ experiences – with experts like Yasmin, a Venezuelan- born artist who has lived in ²


17 MARCH 2022


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