Charlene Brown is a Canadian painter who started writing about painting trips during the ten years she and her husband lived in Dubai -- an adventure which all began in 1989 when they saw a newspaper ad: 

Experienced Airline Captains required by 

Emirates, the International Airline of the UA.E. 

Live in beautiful Dubai and see the world on this award-winning airline!   

Her husband was an experienced Airline Captain, so they decided to go there.  Well, they decided to find out where exactly Dubai was and then go there...  Later, they found it hard to believe they ever had doubts about that move, but there was a time -- August 2, 1990 to be exact -- the day they shipped all their stuff to Dubai (which turned out to be at the south end of the Persian Gulf).  It was also the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait (at the north end of that same Gulf).  The phrase, 'too good to be true' crossed their minds.  As it happened, everything turned out even better than they'd hoped.  There was, of course, the Gulf War early in 1991, but that was more worrisome for the people back home than for those right there in the Gulf. 

During the war and the years she worked at the Dubai International Arts Centre, Charlene didn't travel a great deal, but soon made the happy discovery that there were lots of great painting opportunities right there in Dubai.  The Gulf Weekly began publishing her accounts of painting trips in that part of the Arabian peninsula -- then said they might consider other countries, even such exotic locations as Canada!  She had written about painting trips in over twenty countries by the time her husband retired and they returned to Victoria, British Columbia to live.

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