| 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 |
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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 |
