Holiday in Torquay

from w
A few days away from the computers in our household was a daumting task for most of us when eight of us spent a few days in a friend's holiday house in Torquay, a seaside town not far from Geelong. Torquay is a great place, very clean and with beautiful beaches. Nearby is Bells Beach where the surfers have their annual Easter Rip Curl carnival. Going without the internet was a trial for the kids too who are on Facebook or youtube a lot of the time! Anyway it did give an impetus for me to do some drawing - mainly pen or pencil. It was nice to roam around the beaches and on Monday get up before dawn to be near enough to the Anzac Day sunrise service at Point Danger. There were thousands of people in Torquay for the weekend - with Bells Surf carnival on, school holidays and Easter and the Anzac service. We had a lovely time and the boys want to go back often - the household had extra bonuses such as a barbecue, a pool table, boogie boards, etc. etc. Thank you Rev Richard for inviting us to your Mum's holiday house!

Torquay with a box of pastels

from w
This afternoon we drove down to Torquay/Jan Juc - about 25 minutes from Geelong. It's a lovely neat town with three or four beaches and Spring Creek. Shops are modern and it's got the feel of a tourist town, bright, shiny, with street signs shaped like waves. Well, there is Bell's Beach you know! We first of all looked down over the surf beach, then sat near Spring Creek, then had drinks at a Chinese noodle shop owned by a middle-aged couple from Beijing. It was a pleasant afternoon, but it would be good to go back there and wander more slowly. The use of oil pastels made it a rush job. This seaside town has about 10,000 people I suspect and the price of houses is really high these days - such as a million plus!

And three pictures - photos taken by other people at Torquay - one I changed a bit. It certainly is a beautiful place.

Rockpool at Torquay

from w
The photographs I posted of the North sculptures at the Geelong Waterfront reminded me of a paint/oil pastel picture I made of a rockpool at Torquay beach, so I found it, scanned a coupe of sections of it as it is about A3 in size, and then messed around with variations. Not a tranquil sort of beach it seems.