About us
The partnership that is Creative Arts Safaris grew out of the creative interests of Fiona
Wright and the professional experience of Kanhiya Lal [Parveen to his mates].
Our travel agency Indian Adventure Tours and Travel opened in New Delhi in 2004
and our Textile Tours-Indian Adventures' Tactile Textile Tours followed soon after.
Fiona and Parveen love to travel to new places to explore, looking for those interesting and
special spots.  Now, that is another hard day in the office for us -researching our latest inspiring
location-  what a day job!
Our team use words like passion and enthusiasm, interest and sharing
often, this is our common thread that links us to our work individually and to
our teaching and sharing role within the Creative Arts Safaris Tours. It is an
outlook on life all of us have individually chosen to follow and a view we like
to share with our fellow travellers and students.

Fiona Wright is  an artist based between Gresford, rural NSW, Australia and India where
she pursues a Fine Arts practice; the medium in use is generally textile.
Fiona’s work is exhibited nationally and internationally; she has worked in textiles most of her life
and spent a long stint as a Steiner/Waldorf teacher, she maintains a busy teaching schedule in
the  textiles and arts fields.

Fiona and Parveen share an interest in good food and cooking and are
planning a Guest house and cooking school in the future
- one of the joys of their business is checking out good hotels, interesting
venues and doing the tasting research necessary to find good dining
experiences for their customers!
CV of Fiona Wright
www.fionawright.com
http://ofdaydreamsandmemories.blogspot.com/

Kanhiya Lal [Parveen Nayak to his mates] hails from
the Shekawati area of Rajasthan and now lives in Delhi. He has spent much of the last twenty
years working in the tourism industry of North-western India, sharing his knowledge of this
exciting area with some of India’s many visitors. He now operates  Indian Adventures Tours and
Travel in New Delhi and Creative Arts Safaris.
In his spare time Parveen has a passion for good food and cooking, especially the
regional specialties of the Rajputs of Shekawati.
www.indianadventures.net  

Our Team
Anne Bruntlett- Anne comes from a background of the English primary and secondary
education systems. She has a keen interest in India and in Textiles.
Anne writes of her experiences teaching and in India...
The groans: Recently attending several of the workshops at a major education conference has
done little to increase my faith in textiles teaching today. ‘Exciting textiles’ and ‘textiles
in the curriculum’ do not seem to be phrases that fit together. Why haven’t we moved
on from the 50s? Why are pupils being made to produce cushion covers and  
drawstring bags that will be tossed into deep recesses by pupils when they take them
home, never to seen the light of day again? There are sources for inspiration in the
world which can enthuse the teacher and make textiles the ‘in’ subject if only we are
willing to take the first step of faith. Where are the brave textile teachers?

The possibilities: India is a shock to the system that can refresh the creative juices in
unimaginable ways. The flash of vivid colour in a sea of dust, the reflection of a
thousand mirrors, the sound of bells, drums and fireworks. Put these all together and
you have an inspirational cocktail that can change your view on colour, decoration
pattern and maybe even life! It certainly changed my perspective!
CV of Anne Bruntlett
http://thebruntletts.bulldoghome.com/pages/thebruntletts_bulldoghome_com/Index.htm
A link to online info available as a resource to schools http://www.data.org.uk/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=666&Itemid=1


Dijanne Cevaal
A life in pursuit of textiles, travel and adventure, with the odd dose of good
food and enjoying  the ambiance of place sums up my passions- ohh and books.
I am  a practising textile artist, enthralled by the possibilities of textile, the history
of textile  and its cultural imperatives-  to understand the maker, know what
their hands know and delight in the visual dance of colour, line and texture.
I teach creative textile courses embracing many facets of textile practice and
am much inspired by the textile culture of third world countries. Once textiles
inspired the great caravan routes that traversed  the known lands, silk spoke
of richness and wealth, courts employed artisans to create fine embroideries in
threads of gold and silk, and  Indian printed fabrics were forbidden in the courts
of Europe under threat of death. This rich and exotic history still exists-  largely
shunned by the "industrialised"  west which has seen the maker separated from their creation.
It is my aim to revere the practises that still exist, to make textile a rich experience in daily life.
CV of Dijanne Cevaal
www.picturetrail.com/dcevaal
http://origidij.blogspot.com

Amorelle Dempster
Hunter Valley Chef, Amorelle was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and migrated to Australia when
she was nineteen years old. She is married with two children and lives on a beautiful property in
the Hunter Valley where she and her husband Andrew, live a life of cooking, hospitality and
biodynamic food production.  
Amorelle's passion is cooking traditional home-style food. The food she cooks has evolved from  
her unique cultural background and draws on her rich heritage of Portuguese, Dutch and Sri
Lankan Influences and years of cooking time honoured family favourites in her mothers kitchen.
Her keen interest in spices and the spice routes evolved when the family home was the store
house for many exotic spices traded by her father who had a business as a spice merchant and
trader.
“Most night my siblings and I slept with the sweetest perfumes from cardamon or cinnamon or
the exotic scents and aromas of the more pungent black pepper or cloves”.
Amorelle describes Sri Lankan cuisine as being "rich in fragrance and tradition". The
combination of exotic dry spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, chilli, fennel and cumin and
the blending of aromatic fresh ingredients like garlic, ginger, fresh turmeric, tamarind and curry
leaves is what makes a Sri Lankan meal memorable.
After a long and successful career in Marketing, Amorelle followed her passion for cooking and
after qualifying  as a Chef set up Paradesha Home Style Cooking and catering.   She now  
produces a range of traditional ready to eat fresh and frozen curries, catering for weddings,
parties and corporate functions, runs a cooking school at Paradesha Farm, her home in
Gresford in the Hunter Valley and is collaborating with Creative Arts Safaris to take culinary
tours to exotic locations.
CV of Amorelle Dempster

Vicki Fraser Having travelled to many different places around the world and
become so aware of the small and delicate environment we have on this planet,
I would like to share this experience of global awareness and enjoy other
people's cultures and especially textile traditions. As a child on the island of
Okinawa, my parents and I took an extensive tour of Japan, this was the
seed for me of wanting to see the world.   During my high school years my
family lived in Vietnam, after school I taught English and dancing to local
students. Finishing University, I travelled to the Academy of Fine Arts,
Florence, Italy I started studying art history before and restoration skills
after the huge flood waters of 1966 soaked many of the rare books in the
National Library.   I have become particularly keen on conservation of rare
and beautiful textiles.   The needlework skills I have developed over the years
have given me a curiosity and wonder of the similar needle works around the
world. My base is now Mendocino, California a perfect location to work on
my next rug project and to branch out from on the lookout for fibre arts and
natural dye techniques.
CV of Vicki Fraser
www.californiarug.org

AP Lynch  [Ant to his mates]–“ I have spent most of my adult life traveling the majority of
the countries between the British Isles and Australia. During these travels my love for
photography and all that it entails has blossomed into a career.
I’ve  documented many facets of life from such diverse cultures as the tribes in Baluchistan to
the glass blower’s of Venice. War zones in the West Bank to Rodeo’s in the Kimberley.
Photography has given me not only a creative outlet but has shaped my life in a way I could
never have imagined. To document these experiences and to share them, to show the world in
all its raw beauty is my life’s passion.
When teaching photography especially in foreign climes, my aim is to try to get the‘student’ to
capture the essence of the subject. I want them to soak up the project, I feel this involves not
just sight, but sound taste and smell. I want them to feel what they are photographing.
I try to teach a way of ‘seeing’ that will enhance not just this tour but their life in general. I truly
believe photography as in all art can really change a person’s life. So many things in life go
unnoticed that could enhance ones enjoyment of the everyday.
My goal is to pass on the knowledge I have been given by others, the knowledge that has so
improved my life and  the way I see things. I want to enthuse and stir passions, for questions to
be asked and answers to be sought.”
CV of AP Lynch
www.creativedrivesafari.com
www.pngphototours.com  


Leonie Norton is an experienced and popular international tutor and artist. She has been
drawing, painting and exhibiting from her early teens. Her preferred medium is watercolour.
Her qualifications include BA/Visual Arts degree, B.Fine Arts, BFA (Honours) and a post
graduate degree (Grad Dip) in Adult Education (Vocational Education and Training).

Leonie holds regular classes and workshops in adult education centres and art centres in
Sydney and various Australian destinations. She also travels to New Zealand and various
regional areas of Australia instructing at Summer Schools, as well as Fiji, Canada and the UK.
New destinations for Holiday Sketching will feature Fiji, Vietnam and South India.
All students will benefit from Leonie’s informative and knowledgeable tutoring, continual
encouragement, demonstrations, feedback and patience.
Having traveled extensively, Leonie has exhibited regularly both in Australia and
overseas. Her paintings are in private and corporate collections in many countries.

She also illustrates for magazines and has had many articles written about her and her
work.
CV of Leonie Norton
www.botanicalart.com.au
www.holidaysketching.com.au


Jane Richens

For 25 years I have been involved in the visual arts and design areas as a
practitioner and then as I got into things I became involved in the running of arts
organisations and teaching. It has been a great opportunity to work with students
developing projects and indulging in some of my interests of ephemera (found

things, visual texture, bits and pieces to be used as a basis for collage), ‘multiples’,
visual reproduction technologies (from hand printing to digital forms), handmade artist’s
books, sustainability and the environment. A lot of this took place in arts and design
departments at the Uni of Western Sydney, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in

Singapore and at the College of Fine Arts, Uni of NSW.
I now live on my rainforested farm Tabbil Forest at Bingleburra in rural New South
Wales where I hold workshops and events and can continue to explore art
processes and materials.
As for my art, I use an eclectic mix of media. I like to get excited by an idea, or

perhaps something I have found and work them together, in the past this has lead to
series working with photography, photocopying and preprinted objects all collaged

and drawn or painted on and then reworked and recopied with some ending up at
billboard size. A recent body of work draws on my passions for the rainforest ecosystem
and uses felt, wire and timber to create organic plant sculptures.

CV of Jane Richens

Trinh Van Khanh [Khanh to his mates] hails from a peaceful village south of Hanoi.
His family grow rice and produce fine rice noodles and plenty of fresh vegetables on the family
farm.
Khanh studied Business and Tourism in Hanoi where he now makes his home. He has a keen
interest in language, having taught himself English and French.
Khanh's passion is his home country and he likes nothing better than being able to share an
insight into its culture through forays into village life, he is a keen hiker and cycler and can
arrange interesting off-the-beaten track adventures throughout Vietnam.
One such trip is called "Highlights of North, Central and South Vietnam'- a 14 day tour
of Vietnamese highlights.
Creative Arts Safaris are pleased to have his local knowledge and enthusiasm as part
of our team.
to contact Khanh email khanh@creative-arts-safaris.com He is happy to help with any
questions about Vietnam
Creative Arts Safaris
info@creative-arts-safaris.com
Phone +61 [0]2 49 389 410                                                 + 91[0] 91 97 17 662 332
Gresford, NSW, Australia                                                   Pushkar, Rajasthan, India
 
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Do
and in doing
        Become.

                    -Sartre

We are what we
repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is
not an act but a
habit
     
                 -Aristotle
A photographer with millions of
photos only has this one of
himself! All covered in dirt,
having just dug a 4 wheel drive
out of a bog in the Kimberly.
Dijanne with a group of
Sudanese Students