Art walks – Mornington Peninsula

The beautiful beaches and bush of Melbourne's Bays and Peninsulas have inspired generations of Australian artists. They travelled from the city along the shores of Port Phillip Bay and down the Mornington Peninsula where they camped out for days to capture in oils and watercolours a stunning array of bay, beach and cliff views.

Stand in the places they set up their easels and see what inspired artists such as Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Max Meldrum, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Rupert Bunny, Violet Teague, John Mather, Nicholas Chevalier, Louis Buvelot and Eugene von Guerard.

To help you find those sites, easy to follow ‘artists' trails’ have been created along the bay, ocean and Western Port sides of the Peninsula. As you pass the scenery they depicted in paint you can compare what's there today with what artists from different generations saw and painted. The Coastal Art Trail is the main trail but there are also three others captured in a brochure which you can pick up from the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.