Last week Elena Parashko lead a group of artists at Daku Resort. Karen (attending her second art and painting retreat at Daku) writes below:

“This is my second time to Daku Resort to combine some learning with pleasure. I left with some concern as to whether the memories I had retained so vividly from last visit in September 2009 would actually set me up for a disappointment as my benchmark was already set so high.

Painting on the beach

Keni and Raj greeted me back to the ‘family’ as if I had returned home. And part of the Tadulala family we were, from the minute we arrived until it was time to leave. Mereoni made sure that we were well fed and combined Western, Asian and traditional Fijian food to ensure that we did not go hungry. It was delicious and healthy. Who’d of thought that seaweed could taste so good – really! The entertainment provided by the Tadulala children was presented with genuine warmth and an eagerness to please. The accommodation was very clean with bucketfuls of charm.

Despite my initial concerns, I was all the more pleasantly surprised when this trip was even better than the last.

Another day hard at work

Elena Parashko was our art teacher for this course and her teaching skills and ability transformed us all (she had 10 eager students of differing abilities) into artists with greater skills and far more confidence than when we arrived. It surely helped that the pick of locations would be the envy of anyone – paintbrush in hand or not. If the weather chose to spring a tropical storm upon us we also had the new purpose built Yoga Shala to set up our easels and paint away.

In the beautiful Yoga Shala

While there we had the pleasure of meeting another group who were there to appreciate classical music under the guidance of Mike Smith. Mike so very clearly loved his subject matter that he has inspired me to explore this music genre further.

So now it seems that I have presented myself with a real problem now that I have set my benchmark even higher. A challenge I shall gladly rise up to and return again in 2011.

Thank you Daku for being a little piece of paradise.

Karen McAllister

Tony and Demo with my painting

Paradise Courses 2009

We’re more than half way through the schedule for this year – but there are some wonderful courses still to come.

Art:

Kerrie Lester teaches Figures in the Landscape from September 12 – 19; as a 16 times Archibald finalist, her exuberant paintings are very well known.

The following week – September 19 – 26 – Leonie Norton teaches Botanical Art and Holiday Sketching – always a popular week.

Singing and Music:

Rachel Hore leads her sixth week from September 26 – October 4 – a choral workshop drawing on her world music songs.

Mike Smith of Radio 2MBS leads a week of Classical Music Appreciation from October 11 – 18.

Tony Backhouse is coming back for a week of Gospel Singing from November 22 – 29.

You can find full details of all the courses at www.paradisecourses.com. If you have any specific questions or are not clear about anything, please get in touch, either by email to paradisecourses@iinet.net.au or by calling us on +61 (02) 9969-4753. We look forward to welcoming you to Daku Resort.

Yoga

This has been a new and very successful introduction this year, and we still have 4 weeks on offer – have a look at www.yogainfiji.com for more details.

Aug 23 – 30   –   Pam Badman:  Yoga with awareness – Hatha and Kundalini

Nov 6 – 13   -   Amanda Ahern:  Yoga and creativity: Svaroopa Yoga

Nov 14 – 21 –   Tara Er:  Iyengar Yoga

Dec 7 – 13   –   Mark Whitwell:  Heart of Yoga