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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
Back in the 1980's, I painted the White Bay Power Station while it was still operational.
In the 1990's, while the Pyrmont Power Station and Balmain Power Station were in the process of being demolished, I returned to the area to paint the Unilever site, the White Bay Hotel and the Goods Yard. While the Anzac Bridge was being constructed, I painted birds-eye views of the site from the summit of the western pylon. In 2000, the ownership of the site passed from Pacific Power to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). From 2002 - 2004 I painted exterior views of the Boiler House and monumental interiors of the Turbine Hall, one of which was acquired by the Mitchell Library, State Library of N.S.W. for their collection.
From 2008 I have been painting this magnificent relic from the wharves of Glebe Island and White Bay.
Now I've returned to the site itself as 'Artist in Residence'.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
The bright red belongs to some containers which are full of debris from some of SHFA's other sites. Bizarrely, one of these containers has been decorated with paintings of butterflies.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
This canvas was painted close to the railway corridor next to the old ash handling yard to the south east of the site.
I have chosen to explore the slightly less glamorous aspect of the site as the first paintings of my long awaited return to the site, rather than the all too familiar view from Mullens Street.
Every half baked photographer and his dog has an image or two of the iconic chimney stacks from the northern Balmain side. This is scarcely a challenge - far too easy. I know this building very well, inside and out, and have painted it and the surrounding area over the past 3 decades.
My paintings show the White Bay Power Station's subtler charms.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
In the foreground is the space where the 2nd Boiler House, built on the southern side in 1927, and demolished from 1975-1976.
Now this space is used for leftover debris from the clearing of Ballast Point, a former Caltex fuel depot, now a public park. I remember painting some of these relics on location at Ballast Point before its transformation in 2004-5.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW The
imposing facade, even from the back has a stern grandeur and dignity
found in castles and forts. The dramatic shadow cast by this monolith is
occasionally broken by glints of sunlight that touch weeds now
infesting the vacant upper south yard, once home to the White Bay Hotel
which finally succumbed to a mysterious fire in 2009. |
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| "White Bay Power Station from the back 1" 2011 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm Available for sale |
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| "White Bay Power Station from the back 2" 2011 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm Available for sale |
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1 comment:
What a great thing to be doing! I have live din Balmain for 8 years and often stare at that building as I come down Mullens Street, thinking what a wonderful and other worldly thing it is! So much material for
an artist! I also have a connection of earlier years, having worked for a government body that used to store it's paperwork there. So many lives in a building! What a wonderful practice you have, all that history. Keep it up (and thanks for becoming a follower of my blog)
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