In October and November of last year we travelled to the East of Australia, specifically Melbourne, Sydney and the surrounding areas. We saw some incredible sites and wildlife, some highlights include The Great Ocean Road, staying in and exploring the Blue Mountains, whale-watching and watching hundreds of Little Penguins come ashore at dusk on Phillip Island. We saw miles of coastline, city landscapes, rainforest and alpine regions. The variety of environment was amazing if you make the effort to explore.
I took my painting supplies hoping to to do some regular plein-air studies whilst out and about. In the end I produced 12 pieces of the beaches and other landscape we saw. This was the first time I’d painted regularly, let alone en plein-air. I’m very happy with what I’ve produced, I could definitely feel myself improves throughout the holiday. I could’ve happily stayed and painted forever.
Each of the 12 plein-air studies is done “on site” in gouache, over an initial watercolour pencil sketch. I’ll present them in chronological order and try to mention where each one was done. Click on any of the images for an enlarged view.
We are going to have to go again, it’s safe to say we were totally enamoured. It’s too incredible a country to not see more of it. We’ve barely scratched the surface. The difficulty will be deciding on whereabouts next…
Sandy Point, Victoria. Not far from Wilsons Promontory. We sat in the sand dunes.
Gibsons Steps. Down The Great Ocean Road, one of the stops before the 12 Apostles lookout. The sea was really rough and sounded incredible here.
Peterborough Campsite, a couple of static homes and a caravan. Where we camped a couple of nights after driving along the Great Ocean Road. (Quite different to the Peterborough in the UK…) One of the evenings where I lost the light and therefore couldn’t continue with this one.
Trees in Aspendale, a suburb of Melbourne.
Aspendale Beach. This saw a little rushed; I was beginning to lose the light again and it was getting a little chilly.
Lake Entrance. The first stop on our drive from Melbourne to Sydney along the coast. Lakes Entrance marls the beginning of 90 Mile Beach, Victoria. I thought the lifeguard hut would make an interesting study.
Short Point, Merimbula. The second stop on our drive to Sydney.
Short Point, Merimbula. Again. This is the opposite view from the previous painting, where the trapped sea water has created a pond or small lake. This might be my favourite painting from the trip.
Jervis Bay. Our third and last stop before Sydney. The inlet on the right lead to large shallow body of water where plenty of people were bathing in the sun.
Bronte Beach, Sydney. A short walk from Bondi Beach. The day we were here was incredibly busy due to it being the last day of “Sculpture By The Sea”; so plenty of photo opportunities. I’ve omitted the people from the view.
Cooma. Our first stop on our drive back from Sydney to Melbourne. It’s in the alpine region of Victoria and the temperature dropped in the night to around 3°c! I lost the light again with this study.
Buchan. Our last stop before arriving back in Melbourne. We camped in Buchan Reserve among the kangaroos, such a wonderful place. We also did tours of the nearby caves with incredible stalactites and stalagmites.
Parkdale Beach. Another suburb of Melbourne, a short walk along the beach from Aspendale. This was painting on one of our last days before flying home.