Banana coast revisited

After some fiddling I finished my acrylic version of the banana coast. It's a view that I love, combining the rural views with the Pacific Ocean.

Coffs Harbour trip

After a frenetic end to the year, we packed the car and made the 6+ hour journey to Coffs Harbour to spend Christmas with our sister Tess and her family. We stayed at a beach house at Moonee Beach and it was a fab location. Lulled by the sea breezes and frangipani fragrance, I relaxed sufficiently to sketch. This is the sketch I made of Moonee beach.


Coffs is tourist mad at this time of year but we avoided the town. Tess lives in Central Bucca which is on the plateau of the range. To get there, we have to drive up these slopes planted with banana and avocado crops. It's very scenic. Then we get to Bruxner Park which is a gum forest, straight and tall. Snakes frequently bask themselves on the road. Finally we get to farm land and it's very lush this year after all the rainfall it received. This next sketch is of the banana coast.

Beachscapes

I set myself up under a Norfolk pine at Moonee to draw the beach. The colours are rather bright but as a portrait artist my pastel range was not capable of subtler shades of sand or bushes. Further trips to the art shop are required.

The next one is of Sawtell beach, which has a neat little lifeguard hut in lovely orange and blue (whoever designed it knew their complementary colours!). I was sitting on an observation deck and once absorbed in the task was not in the least bit bothered by people coming and having a peek.

The last one is of Digger's beach. There are of course, many many more beaches at Coffs Harbour that are worthy to capture, just that time is so short!