We will be exploring South Luangwa National Park, which is an extraordinary and beautiful wildlife area, full of game.  It’s one of our favourite places and is often described as ‘Another Eden’.

South Luangwa is the hotspot for African wildlife on the continent.

Our base for this wildlife sketching week is a friendly, simple safari lodge situated just outside the park on the banks of the Luangwa River. Originally built by Mary-Anne and friends and now under new ownership, Thornicroft Lodge holds a fabulous position on the river.  There is always something happening at the water’s edge – whether it is hippos and crocodiles lazing around, or elephants coming to drink!  Wildlife can also wander freely through the lodge at any time of day. There is always some action to be sketched and drawn somewhere in camp…

This is a time of year that’s fantastic for elephants.  So we set out to show that they are not always ‘large, grey and unmistakable’!  Bring enough litres of grey to paint an elephant, but bring your colours too.

We focus on wildlife sketching from open vehicles and use the time back in camp in the afternoons to work up sketches into paintings in watercolour and other portable media.  Your tutors will give demonstrations and provide one-to-one tuition time.  They will help you to develop your way of working, and observational techniques for drawing moving animals from life.

On our day and night game drives, we hope to fill our sketchbooks with elephant, lion, leopard, giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu, baboons, and warthog on the grassy floodplains and mopane woodlands, not to mention pods of hippo and numerous water birds in the ox-bow lagoons of the Luangwa River!

This is a hot time of year when the animals congregate in the main Mfuwe area near to permanent water.  It’s highly exciting.  The skies are clear and blue, and predators are more numerous and more tempted by the plains game – making an encounter with the Luangwa’s famous leopards even more likely….

By giving yourself a week’s painting in the bush you have a wonderful opportunity to study animals in depth, improving your field sketching techniques and your plein air confidence.

Whatever your level of artistic skill, the combination of art and wildlife is unbelievably exciting, challenging and great fun!