Industrial Cathedral

Industrial Cathedral
"Industrial Cathedral" charcoal on paper 131 x 131 cm Jane Bennett. Finalist in 1998 Dobell Drawing Prize Art Gallery of NSW Finalist 1998 Blake Prize Winner 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize

About Me

My photo
Sydney, NSW, Australia
I'm an Industrial Heritage Artist who paints "en plein air".If it's damaged, derelict, doomed and about to disappear, I'll be there to paint it.

Saturday 17 December 2011

Brewer's Droop - Painting the Carleton United Brewery, Chippendale

The southern edge of the Sydney CBD, adjacent to Central railway station incorporating Broadway and Chippendale, was dominated by a walled off 'Empire of Beer' for over 170 years.
Kent Brewery was built by John Tooth and Charles Newnham in 1835. It exploited the fresh water from nearby Blackwattle Creek. However, Blackwattle Creek didn't stay fresh for long, and soon the surrounding area was a notorious slum.
The unregulated and noxious local industries included the Swamp Abattoirs across Parramatta Road in Ultimo, which provided the Char House of the Colonial Sugar Refinery with bones to burn to produce charcoal for filtering sugar.
Plein air oil painting of the Carleton United Brewery site in Chippendale painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
CH4 Pub with no beer- Carleton United Brewery 2
2009 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
Available
When bubonic plague hit waterside Sydney in the first decade of the 20th century, the authorities embarked on a program of slum clearances and 350 Chippendale houses were resumed by 1911.
Tooth's brewery site moved into the vacuum, extending their empire of beer more than 6 acres into the surrounding residential areas. Tooth's owned the western side of Kensington Street, and demolished properties  to construct new brewery buildings, as well as a wall to exclude the public. Yet another wall was built on the northern side of Wellington Street.
You can see this wall running behind the Irving Street Brewery boiler house in the painting above, which was painted during the demolition craziness not long after the property had been bought by Frasers Property for redevelopment.
Tooth’s Irving Street Brewery was built in 1912, and covered most of the land between Carlton and Balfour Streets.
Plein air oil painting of the Carleton United Brewery site in Chippendale painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
CH3 Pub with no beer- Carleton United Brewery
2009 oil on canvas 100 x 75cm
Available

This iconic Sydney landmark is an 180 ft high octagonal brick tapering structure with metal strapping with cracked coping. Brick buttresses transfer the structure to a square base. 
The Irving Street Brewing Tower ceased its brewing operation in 1979, as it was superseded by the New Brewhouse.
It was one of the earliest and most prominent chimney stacks built in the CBD, and one of the last remaining in inner Sydney.
In the 1980s, a large redevelopment saw the demolition of all but one of the original Kent Brewery buildings. and Carlton and Uniting Breweries purchased it.
Until 1983 there were 1000 personnel at the brewery including lab staff, engineers, plumbers, fitters and turners, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, coopers, trades assistants, storemen, drivers and security.
In 1983 Tooth and Co were taken over by the Adelaide Steamship Company and the brewing assets were sold to Carlton and United Breweries and in 2003 the brewery closed forever.
Frasers Property bought the 5.8 hectare site in 2007 and embarked on a wildly ambitious $2 billion urban renewal project. It incorporates mixed use development including high density apartments,student accommodation in Kensington and Abercrombie Streets, a shopping centre, office blocks, and the old Brewery will be turned into a boutique hotel.
In my paintings you can see how the Irving Street Brewery building resembled a ruined castle on an island in the middle of a moat. It was a dreadfully boggy site after all the other buildings were clear felled around it and therre was a perpetual pool of water surrounding the old brewery.
Some heritage features have been selectively kept in the mix. Run down terraces in Kensington Street have become "Spice Alley", a funky "Eat Street", the sandstone gateway has been kept and the Irving Street Brewery building has now been adaptively reused as a community facility while also housing the site’s sustainable features including the tri generation plant providing the power, heating and cooling.
Chippendale, once an embarrassing slum, is now the fashionable hipster enclave known as Central Park.

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Friday 2 December 2011

Painting the Tugboats of Sydney Harbour - the 'Wilga', 'Wonga' 'Woona' and 'Watagan'

Looking for suitable subject matter to paint for the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery, I couldn't resist the tugs.
Now that there are fewer large ships coming in to Sydney Harbour, they are harder to spot.
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett




















The best opportunities are when they escort the tankers in and out of Gore Cove, and when the cruise ships come in to Barangaroo. Peak cruise ship season is from October to the end of February, so this means a bumper crop of tugboat paintings.
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
'The 'Wonga' 2011 oil on board 28 x 35cm
Enquiries about similar paintings



















My studio at Moore's Wharf, opposite Walsh Bay Wharves on the right and Barangaroo to the left, offers good vantage points for tug spotting.
As well as painting from the wharf at ground level when the weather permits, I have studio space on the top floor in the 'loft', which gives me a 'bird's eye view'.
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
'The 'Wilga' 2011 oil on board 28 x 35cm
Enquiries about similar paintings
In this set of paintings, I have varied the viewpoint and the background - the paintings of the 'Wilga' and the 'Wonga' feature the tugs alone against the sea and are painted from the top floor of Moore's Wharf; the 'Woona' (which has recently been repainted in its new livery of Naples yellow and navy - it used to be white with a black hull) is painted in late afternoon against the spectacular backdrop of Goat Island; and the 'Watagan', one of the smaller tugs, is shown dwarfed by the giant white cruise ship it is escorting.
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
And a tugboat in action - 'Watagan' bringing the 'Pacific Dawn' into Barangaroo's temporary cruise ship terminal.
Sydney's new cruise ship terminal will be built at White Bay, as soon as the old White Bay Transit Shed has been demolished.
In the meantime, there are a motley collection of vessels berthed there for me to paint.  
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett






















All the previous paintings are of Svitzer tugs and painted from around Moore's Wharf.
This is the odd one out in the series, as it was painted at White Bay, and was tied up rather than out on the water. I thought that it would be a good contrast.
I fell in love with the pale blue tug PB Endeavour, one of the Pacific Basin Tugs.
I was admiring it when it has been berthed at White Bay Berth 5, next to the 'Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd'.
The PB Endeavour was launched just over a year ago, and was a bargain at $9 million or so ! I wish! But as it falls a little bit outside my budget, I'll have to settle for painting it.

Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
'The 'PB Endeavour' at White Bay 
2011 oil on board 28 x 35cm
Painted en plein air at White Bay Wharf, Berth 5

Sold
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
'The 'PB Endeavour' at White Bay 
2011 oil on board 28 x 35cm
Painted en plein air at White Bay Wharf, Berth 5
Sold
Marine painting- plein air oil painting of tug in Sydney Harbour by marine artist Jane Bennett
'The 'PB Endeavour' at White Bay 
2011 oil on board 28 x 35cm
Painted en plein air at White Bay Wharf, Berth 5

Sold

































































I'll display this set of little tugboat paintings in the Xmas show at Frances Keevil Gallery, opening on Saturday 10th December 2011