Petrichor ~ Lewis Hamilton

24

October 4, 2021, Monaco

Elaine's POV

We have spent a lot of time here in the last few days, Lewis never got bored of asking about each painting, each sketch, he wanted to know all about it and for the first time in a long time I wanted to tell it all.

Today was somewhat different, I wanted to see if I could continue with the painting, feeling more centered, less confused, and maybe I could capture that in the painting.

He wanted to try making a painting too, so I prepared everything he needed and explained the basics to him but he didn't let me look at what he was doing, occasionally looking at photos on his phone as a reference.

I glaced at him from time to time from the opposite side of the room, I had not made any progress in my work but I was in no hurry, right now his look of concentration while he picked up the brush seeming more important to me.

"Why not share it? Why not take the credit?" He asked after a while without taking the look off the canvas in front of him.

"What good would it be for me? I make a comfortable living doing what I love and on top of that I don't have to deal with bureaucracy or mingle with people I don't care about at inaugurations" I explain.

"When did you sell your first painting" He put down the brush and wiped his hands on a rag. I don't know what he's painting but he's making a mess. There's more paint outside the canvas than inside. He seems to be having fun. I love it.

"I think I was nineteen" I also leave my brushes and palette on a table near me.

"Are you telling me that at nineteen years old not even a small part of you wanted to take the credit? To brag about it"

"Think about this, you have your career. You can keep doing your job, the same results, you make the same money but no one knows who you are. Without having to put up with the press yourself, they criticize you but not you directly, only your performance, without it being biased, would you do it?" He crosses his arms thinking about it.

"Our jobs are very different Elaine" He ends up saying.

"Would you?" I ask again.

"Probably not. I mean, I've worked my whole life to get here, and it's not just for fame or money, that's not the most important thing, I have the opportunity to be a role model, one that I didn't have when I was a child and was starting out in this" He explains.

"I guess I hadn't looked at it like that, you're right. But you still get why I don't say it, right? It's not for fame, I don't care if people know me, which I don't want-" He nods and finishes the sentence for me.

"You don't want to be judged instead of your art, you like having the protection, in this case it is that no one knows that it is really you" He guesses.

"Pretty much, yeah" I approach where he was, looking at his own painting with a small frown. "Have you finished?"

"To have it thrown away? Absolutely" He smiled widely.

"Come on it won't be so bad" I assured him.

"You can laugh" I get around the canvas now looking at what he had done.

He had tried to make his car, keyword try. It was...well the lines of the car were not very well defined, it was a mess of colors that were somewhat blurred due to having tried to fix his own mistakes, I guess I wasn't clear enough with my initial explanation.

"It's not that bad, but why did you start with something so difficult? I told you to start with a landscape or something simple" He was sitting on a stool and grabbed me by the waist, bringing me closer to him, resting his head on my neck to see the scene from there.