Zambia Art Safari 2025.
Once again in 2025 I returned to Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park to lead my latest art safari tour. This very special trip combines some of Africa’s finest wildlife viewing with a multi-day animal sculpture workshop, providing a uniquely immersive experience.
We arrived in South Luangwa later in the season to be greeted by the first rains. All around us the African plains were greening up before our eyes. An advantage of coming at this time of year is fewer visitors and so fewer safari vehicles. For much of the time we had this incredible park to ourselves.
I always start my safaris with a presentation and demo. This time I thought it would be fun to ask the group what they would like me to sculpt for them. They chose an elephant. I like to show my students how sculpture can be used to tell the animal’s story, by manipulating the trunk, ears and legs to suggest whether the animal is listening, leading or drinking.
During the coming week my students would work on developing both their observation and modelling skills to bring their animal sculptures to life. This is the magic of running an animal sculpture workshop in a place like Zambia. We can translate our experience in the field into our art.
This is a uniquely rewarding process, and there really is nothing more exciting for an artist. By immersing themselves in both the environment and their art, students are able to make rapid and often transformative progress, taking their skills to a new level. Most of our Zambia group chose to sculpt elephants. Of all the amazing wildlife on offer within the Park, elephants are perhaps the animals we are mostly likely to see during our game drives. This enables me to point out key features of their anatomy, movement and behaviour, all of which are essential for bringing an animal to life in clay.
As in previous years, our 2025 visit to Zambia was once again all about the leopard. We saw them on every single game drive. Anywhere else in Africa, this would simply be unheard of. I was particularly pleased to come across the local leopard Lucy with her two cubs. We had seen the family last year. Now, a year later, the cubs had grown into two impressive male subadults, both of whom were just as nonchalant about our presence as their mother. More than once these young males walked right up to our vehicle or spread themselves out to rest just beside it.
The guides at Mfuwe Lodge deserve a special mention. They have to commit to three years of intensive study and pass a challenging series of exams to qualify for these top jobs. A good guide can transform your safari experience. Our guide this year, Steve, is someone I’ve worked with before, and he didn’t let us down. His ability to interpret the various signs, markings and sounds frequently led us to fresh predator activity, new animal sightings and unusual encounters. This expertise means we can make the fullest possible use of our time in the wild, and find animals (such as this monitor lizard) that less experienced guides might miss.
Ground hornbills are among the most impressive of Zambia’s birdlife. These large black birds, easily identified by their striking red face and throat, pair for life, which can be as long as sixty years. It takes 4-6 years to nurture a chick to independence. We regularly encountered hornbills hunting for frogs and insects on the ground or perched in a tree with their juvenile. Once in position and with the vehicle engine switched off, you can fully immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the African bush. The hornbills' distinctive booming call can be heard for miles.
One special morning we were treated to a very young hyena cub emerging from a den. He proceeded to feed from his mother while a juvenile cub skulked about. On the same game drive we saw a land monitor lizard for the very first time. These prehistoric looking lizards are much bulkier than their slick water monitor cousins.
My group, a mix of sculptors, amateurs and enthusiastic beginners, all produced excellent work, a fabulous memento of the trip and an original artwork to be proudly displayed at home. I carefully packed their sculptures for transit so they could either glaze fire in their own kiln at home or leave the sculpture to dry rock hard and paint their own desired finish.
As with all my art safari tours, so much was packed into one week we felt we had been away for over a month! Why not join us for the trip of a lifetime?
