There’s still time to enjoy the luxury of time in Luxor!  The focus of this brand new Art Safari to Luxor with artist Jackie Garner is ancient Egyptian art, discovering techniques, styles and meanings.   We spend 9 nights on a private Island on the River Nile, surrounded by a sun-baked desert landscape, strewn with treasures.  You’ll see and paint the layered history of the ancients – a jumble of sphinxes, forests of graceful columns, obelisks, ruined temples, vibrant tomb paintings and elaborate hieroglyphs.   Jackie will tutor you in the use of scale, composition, pattern, guidelines, and texture as you create your own art based on the 6000 years of inspiration all around us! 

We travel by private vehicle with our  expert local guide, who will accompany us throughout to help unlock the mysteries of Egypt’s splendid past. We have a wonderful base for this residential Art Safari, between the majesty of our excursions Jackie will offer some wildlife sketching tuition (of the alive & feathered kind!) in the vast and secluded tropical gardens of our hotel.  Explore the Souks of bustling Luxor, or simply relax – float in the infinity pool overlooking the Nile and watch the sunset over the West Bank.   The average January temperature in the Luxor area is around 21 degrees, very pleasant for sketching and painting outdoors.  

Tour cost: from £1865 per person sharing excl. flights

Single room supplement: £195 

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.

Become completely absorbed by some of the most extraordinary landscapes in the whole of Africa!

Great deserts, seascapes, majestic mountain ranges, endless stretches of grassy savannah and wildlife are our subjects on this artistic journey.  The variety of flora and fauna is as fascinating as the colour nuances, which change continuously.

Our painting days start on the sandstone sculpted Waterberg plateau, and move on to the salt pans of Etosha National Park, where we sit at the waterholes and sketch a rich variety of plains game and predators.  From Etosha we travel through the vast wilderness of Damaraland spotting some of the area’s resident desert-adapted species such as ostrich, zebra and oryx, as well as discovering ancient rock art.  The last leg of our journey takes us to the windswept Atlantic Coast, with its Cape Fur seal colonies and seabirds before turning back inland to stunning red dunes of Sossusvlei.

Using our expert local knowledge, we have tailor-made this experience taking you to sketch and explore breath-taking vistas by day, before retiring to stylish and comfortable lodges to relax, unwind and savour this exhilarating tour.

Tour cost: from £5320 per person sharing excl. flights

Single room supplement: £820

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.

Artist and experienced India traveller Maxine Relton is returning to Tamil Nadu and Kerala for ‘The Silver Ring of South India’.  This tour takes us through the authentic heartland of undiscovered India, venturing off the beaten tourist trail.  Maxine has been leading sketching tours to India for 10 years and is completely captivated by the colour, diversity, people, culture and warm hospitality.  She will encourage you to see with an artist’s eye, to respond to the wonder of ever changing surroundings with vivid, rapid sketches.  

Tamil Nadu is one of the planet’s last classical civilisations, with sacred rituals, ancient literature, songs and dance, traditional customs and crafts that owe nothing to the modern world. We spend time in rarely visited Tamil villages and temples, sketching and engaging with local people.  In Kovalam we are hosted by the wonderful folk at SCAD (Social Change and Development), a Tamil charity very close to Maxine’s heart, SCAD works with all aspects of rural community life, supporting 450 schools.

In Kerala travel through lush green landscapes, forests and spice gardens, drift serenely along the Alleppey backwaters on a traditional houseboat, sketching life on the riverbanks – people fishing, rinsing colourful laundry, walking to temples and working in the rice paddies.  In the narrowest channels we navigate through water hyacinths in a motorised canoe.

Tour cost: from £3774 per person sharing excl. flights

Single room supplement: £879 

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.

Join Mark Boyd at Slimbridge for two days of sketching painting the swans and geese before they migrate back north.  Known to broaden artistic horizons and make you think further about your artwork, Mark will tutor you about these majestic migrants and also visit the Slimbridge collection.

Join the workshop for one day or two.

£70 per day or £130 for two days.

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.

Mary-Anne has a family connection to Victoria Falls – her great-great-grandfather John Kirk first saw it with Livingstone in the 1860s.  It is one of her favourite places to sketch in Africa!

A natural phenomenon and one of the seven natural Wonders of the World, the Victoria Falls is an immense curtain of water spanning 1.7 km and cascading over 100 m into the gorge below.  The force of the tumbling water creates a plume of mist that can be seen over 30 miles away and in the sunlight the spray forms enchanting dancing rainbows…   

This 5-night residential Art Safari is a wonderful opportunity to spend some intensive painting time capturing the spectacular Falls and the awe-inspiring beauty of the Zambezi River, as well as lapping up the colonial splendour of the Victoria Falls Hotel. 

Tour cost: from £1685 per person sharing excl. flights

Single room supplement: £645 

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.

Lack of drawing ability is one of the biggest obstacles to sketching from life or creating a good painting. But it’s a skill you can learn. Spend a day learning techniques that will boost your confidence and your powers of observation so that you start seeing the world with an artist’s eye.

Join Claudia Myatt for a one day workshop full of drawing techniques which will dispel the myth that drawing is something you’re born with or not.  Claudia is convinced that the language of line, like writing, belongs to us all – it’s just that we’ve never been taught how.  Most of the day will be spent in the studio but weather permitting we will also spend time sketching on the veranda or quayside. Techniques we’ll cover include:

– Connecting hand and eye – how to see everything as interconnecting shapes

– Switching off your 3D vision and getting past the interfering brain

– Measured drawing, getting proportions right

– How to cheat at perspective and a good look at the horizon

– Sketching for fun – working fast, working slow

– The importance of making mistakes

These workshops take place in Art Safari’s riverside studio, where there is a wealth of material to be seen from the balcony and around the quayside.  To help you prepare we provide a short list of suggested art materials to bring with you. 

A light lunch and refreshments are provided.

Cost:  £70, including lunch and refreshments

Must be pre-booked on 01394 382235 or info@artsafari.co.uk

(You may also like to join Claudia on Sunday 10 March for her ‘Creating a sketchbook Diary’ workshop – call us for details on 01394 382235)

Using your sketchbook to record your world is an enjoyable and liberating way to paint and draw.  It allows you to spend time, connect and appreciate your surroundings.  It takes the pressure of the expectation that you have to complete a painting worth framing, it improves your drawing skills and helps you to see the world with an artist’s eye.

Join Claudia Myatt for a one day workshop full of techniques, ideas and encouragement to liven up your sketchbooks and gain confidence.  The course will focus on watercolours, pens and pencils, and is suitable for beginners as well as those who’ve got some experience with watercolours but need a bit of a boost.  Most of the day will be spent in the studio but weather permitting we will also spend time sketching on the veranda or quayside. Subjects we’ll cover include:

– Sketching materials – what works in studio doesn’t always work on location. A look at different paper, materials and ways of working.

– Basic watercolour sketching techniques – how to select colours quickly and simplify a scene.

– Overcoming fear of the empty page

– Using words and images together

– The beauty of fragments – when to paint a whole scene and when to focus on a tiny part of it.

– Ways of covering up mistakes and overcoming inhibitions

– Creative doodling, playfulness and mixed media

– Developing your own style

These workshops take place in Art Safari’s riverside studio, where there is a wealth of material to be seen from the balcony and around the quayside.  To help you prepare we provide a short list of suggested art materials to bring with you. 

A light lunch and refreshments are provided.

Cost:  £70, including lunch and refreshments

Must be pre-booked on 01394 382235 or info@artsafari.co.uk

(You may also like to join Claudia on Saturday 9 March for her ‘Drawing for the terrified’ workshop – call us for details on 01394 382235)

Lack of drawing ability is one of the biggest obstacles to sketching from life or creating a good painting. But it’s a skill you can learn. Spend a day learning techniques that will boost your confidence and your powers of observation so that you start seeing the world with an artist’s eye. Join Claudia Myatt for a one day workshop full of drawing techniques which will dispel the myth that drawing is something you’re born with or not.  Claudia is convinced that the language of line, like writing, belongs to us all – it’s just that we’ve never been taught how.  Most of the day will be spent in the studio but weather permitting we will also spend time sketching on the veranda or quayside. Techniques we’ll cover include: – Connecting hand and eye – how to see everything as interconnecting shapes – Switching off your 3D vision and getting past the interfering brain – Measured drawing, getting proportions right – How to cheat at perspective and a good look at the horizon – Sketching for fun – working fast, working slow – The importance of making mistakes These workshops take place in Art Safari’s riverside studio, where there is a wealth of material to be seen from the balcony and around the quayside.  To help you prepare we provide a short list of suggested art materials to bring with you.  A light lunch and refreshments are provided. Cost:  £70, including lunch and refreshments Must be pre-booked on 01394 382235 or info@artsafari.co.uk (You may also like to join Claudia on Saturday 6 April for her ‘Watercolour Basics’ workshop or on Sunday 7 April for Sketching Life on the Deben – call us for details on 01394 382235)

Watercolours are a delight to use and incredibly versatile, but it’s easy to get discouraged when you first try them as they have a reputation for being difficult. All you need is a bit of help and encouragement! Join Claudia Myatt for a one day workshop full of techniques aimed at beginners as well as those who’ve had a bit of experience with watercolours but feel a bit stuck and uninspired. Subjects we’ll cover include: – Trying out different materials – the importance of a good choice of paper.  – Basic watercolour techniques – how to get colours to flow, when to work wet and when to work dry. – Colour mixing – how to stop your palette turning to sludge – From bold and loose to gentle and delicate – finding your style – Line and wash – Sketching and painting – how to choose and approach a subject These workshops take place in Art Safari’s riverside studio, where there is a wealth of material to be seen from the balcony and around the quayside.  To help you prepare we provide a short list of suggested art materials to bring with you.  A light lunch and refreshments are provided.

Cost:  £70, including lunch and refreshments

Must be pre-booked on 01394 382235 or info@artsafari.co.uk (You may also like to join Claudia on Sunday 7 April for her ‘Drawing Life on the Deben – call us for details on 01394 382235)

Following the local hit film ‘Life on the Deben’ Claudia Myatt takes you to the reaches of the River Deben to sketch and paint in the springtime.  Spend a day with Claudia in a mix of studio and field work to enhance your own creativity.  

On the busy quayside outside the Art Safari studio there is a wealth of subjects including the iconic tide mill and boats of all shapes and sizes. A short walk takes us to quiet creeks with wading birds, salt marshes and the challenge of painting the constantly changing tide.

Claudia’s helpful tips and enthusiastic encouragement will help you observe the colours and shapes of the landscapes and give you every confidence to tackle the enchanting Suffolk landscapes – both the interesting details you may see as well as the full simplified landscapes.  And as a maritime artist herself, Claudia will also tackle ways of settling boats on to water.  Art Safari will provide you with wonderful lunches – beware, Claudia might make you draw it before you tuck in…

Workshop cost: £70 including lunch and refreshments.

This fun three-day course is designed for people wanting to use Photoshop to enhance their own artwork or creative photography.  

Wildlife and landscape artist Shelly Perkins uses this versatile computer programme to create her own beautiful digital artworks, combining traditional line drawings and paintings with digital techniques creating multi-layered collages.

She will show you how to use the powerful tools in Photoshop to edit artwork of any type by adding texture, colour, removing blemishes, combining elements… the possibilities are endless, but just like any form of art you must still use imagination and creative skills to get the results you want!

The workshop is purposefully set out in bite sized steps and tasks from the absolute basics through to the more complex elements of the programme to consolidate understanding of the diverse tools.  Some of the key skills you will learn are how to: create layers, work with photographs and turn photos into art, make patterns using shapes, and how to stitch work together to piece together different elements of a same image.

Download the programme and bring a laptop with you (we’ll send you a link to the software beforehand).

Shelly will give demos as well as one-to-one tuition as you work up your own images. There will be time for group discussions and time to show the progress of our own work.

At the end of each day there is the option to gather in a local restaurant or pub for a convivial Art Safari evening (dinner not included).

£285 for all three days, including lunches & refreshments

Places must be pre-booked on 01394 382235 or info@artsafari.co.uk

A new Art Safari itinerary with artist James Willis for 2019, painting medieval hilltop towns and the rolling countryside of Tuscany over Easter, before transferring to magical Venice.

We fly to Florence Airport and stay at our pretty Villa in the Tuscan countryside near Cortona for seven nights.  In April the Tuscan hillsides are gloriously green, peppered with wildflowers and swathes of yellow and mustard broom.  

Cortona is perched high on the hillside of Mount Egidio, surrounded by olive groves and age-old cypresses, it’s a walled town and dates back to Etruscan times.  We make painting excursions in our mini-bus to nearby towns and villages in the Tuscan hills, painting landscapes, Renaissance inspired building, Monasteries, ancient Churches and Abbeys.   

On 24 April we drive to Venice.  We are staying at a hotel in a 14th-century Palazzo on the Grand Canal for five nights, a short distance from Rialto Bridge.  In Venice we will walk and take vaporettos to our painting locations, capturing reflections of Venetian life in our sketchbooks. Bellissimo!

Tour cost

Small single rooms from £3576 excl. flights

Large single rooms from £3938 excl. flights 

Call 01394 382235 to book your place.