Specialist operator Wildlife Worldwide has introduced a new programme of Sketchbook Safaris, inviting guests to immerse themselves in their environment and gain a new, more intimate perspective of wildlife, both at home and abroad, with pencil and paintbrush in hand. Whether a two-night escape to the New Forest, a day’s skills workshop at Cotswold Wildlife Park, five-days’ painting on Lundy Island or an unforgettable safari to Botswana’s Okavango region, the new departures will encourage guests to truly study the animal subjects, learning more about their behaviour and character than by taking a quick snap. Each trip is led by Trevor Waugh, an acclaimed fine artist, whose works hang in private and royal collections around the world, and an enthusiastic teacher having led workshops worldwide.
Whether you have previously painted, turned to art during lockdown or are interested in learning a new skill, these Sketchbook Safaris will help to develop the creativity of wildlife enthusiasts in spectacular wildlife locations. The small group format means that artists will receive personalised expert guidance, and all are welcome.
SKETCHBOOK SAFARIS
New Forest Sketchbook Safari with Trevor Waugh
As spring returns to the New Forest, it comes back to life. Green buds reclaim tree branches, yellow gorse brightens the heath and the young fists of fern begin to unravel. The native and free roaming New Forest ponies have traded their winter coats for foals, which shadow their mothers as they graze the renewed pastures, and red, fallow and sika deer fawns arrive. It is, then, an inspiring time to visit, and on this new short break guests will join accomplished fine artist Trevor Waugh. Visiting the Forest’s Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary, guests will set out their sketchbooks to study the fallow deer and learn how to capture them, and their movement, on paper, while another workshop by Trevor might focus on the colours of the carpet of bluebells. Price: from £595pp sharing, including 2 nights’ B&B accommodation and art tuition. Depart 11 May 2021.
Cotswold Wildlife Park Sketchbook Safari
This one-day workshop in Cotswold Wildlife Park is an ideal introduction to wildlife drawing, as it provides a huge variety of species to study and observe. The purpose of the workshop is not to achieve a perfectly finished piece of art, but to develop your techniques, sketching thumbnails of your subjects in a variety of poses and gathering information which can later be used as reference. The day begins with easier species, such as the Southern white rhino before moving on to the Park’s more animated or elusive residents, such as the greater bamboo lemurs or the Sunda clouded leopard. Price: from £195pp including Park entrance and art tuition. Depart 26 April 2021.
Lundy Island Sketchbook Safari
Lundy Island is the perfect location for a wildlife trip with a difference and guests will not be short of inspiration during this 5-day watercolour workshop. Traffic free, Lundy lies adrift in the Bristol Channel and each June comes alive as some 35 species of bird return there for the breeding season. With exclusive use of Millcombe House, a large classical villa which looks down a wooded valley and out to sea, the small group will learn to capture the birdlife on paper, from guillemots, razorbills and manx shearwaters, to the iconic Atlantic puffin, the trip’s main muse. The island’s wildflowers will also offer an excellent subject for practising detail and shape work. Price: from £850pp sharing, including 4 nights’ accommodation, most meals, art tuition and transfers. Depart 14 June 2022.
Botswana Sketchbook Safari
This creative safari takes place in the Khwai Private Reserve, a vast pristine wilderness on the edge of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Quieter and more intimate than neighbouring reserves, it is the ideal location for slowing down and reproducing wildlife on canvas. After an initial masterclass from Trevor on how to study and depict the wealth of wildlife, guests will take their pencils and watercolours on excursions hoping to spot and sketch leopards, painted dogs and giraffe. The first four nights are spent at Hyena Pan Lodge, where it is possible to paint the elephants that visit the neighbouring waterhole, and the final three nights are at The Jackal and Hide, where slow excursions on the traditional mokoro canoes will offer a fresh perspective for viewing and painting. Price: from £5,995pp sharing, including 7 nights’ accommodation, all meals, transfers, art materials and tuition, and return flights from the UK. Depart 14 May 2022.
