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.

Join Art Safari on this exciting voyage to paint with Shelly Perkins in the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica from 30 January – 17 February 2019. 

Express your sense of adventure and your love of wildlife on this expedition voyage which includes the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctic Peninsula.  It is an incredible travel experience. The sea voyages, the landings, the whales and the penguins contribute to the epic scale of Antarctica.  Your paintings will have a sense of space, filled with wonder. Towering ice cliffs, gigantic glaciers, icebergs the size of skyscrapers – this is an explorer’s dream. 

Take your sketchbook out on landings, paint from the deck of the luxury expedition ship and fill pages with sketches as you learn all about life in Antarctica. 

January and February is the time for chicks – the King penguin colonies of South Georgia are one of the miracles of the wildlife world, while Gentoo and Adelie penguins also gorge their chicks with lovingly caught krill in colonies in Antarctica.  Whales are feeding in the seas, so keep a look out for blows and breaches.  The colour range of Antarctica is exceptionally memorable, with blues beyond the imagination.  Your paintings will have a harmony and express your excitement of this vast scale of sea, ice, snow and mountain.

Your tutor Shelly Perkins is a wildlife artist whose passion for wildlife, travel and conservation drive the development of her work. She aims to emulate the beauty and fragility of the natural world and present it an accessible way.

Shelly’s style is unique and unusual, combining traditional painting and drawing techniques with digital enhancement to create rich images of wildlife and landscapes. As well as showing her work in galleries Shelly has also undertaken commissions for The BBC Wildlife Magazine, The National Trust, The RSPB, and WWF, and was chosen as the Scott Polar research institute’s 2017 Antarctic Artist in Residence.

Tour costs – Departing Ushuaia: 30th Jan 2019

Per person sharing from:            

£13,995 (Twin Private Cabin)

£16,995 (Superior Cabin)

£17,775 (Superior Plus Cabin)

£19,995 (Shackleton Suite)

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.

Join us in Sri Lanka, the ‘Resplendent Isle’, which lies just off the southern tip of India.  Artist Karen Pearson tutors and leads you around the beautiful and diverse tear-drop island along with our local guide who’s there to unravel the colourful history, culture and mythology of this ancient land.  Sri Lanka gives us endless painting opportunities: coastlines, monuments, flowers, tea gardens, exotic temples, villages, jungles, exciting wildlife and palm tree fringed beaches.

Our 16-day tour involves travelling around the country in our private air-conditioned vehicle and by boat, staying in lovely hotels and guesthouses.  It is designed so that we see the highlights of cultural and wildlife, sketching, painting and enjoying the hospitality of this wonderful nation. 

This is a relaxing and stimulating tour that suits artists and adventurers of all levels.

Tour cost: from £3733 per person sharing excl. flights

Single room supplement: £1597 

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)