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

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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.
Showing posts with label Georges de la Tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georges de la Tour. Show all posts

Monday 13 July 2020

Meltdown-Oxycutting, William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn

The now derelict 'William Wallbank and Sons' was a foundry on the Parramatta Road, Auburn, built in 1932.
I've been painting the machinery before it is all stripped out and sent to a scrap metal yard.
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo














Some of the ladles and other machinery that couldn't be sold intact were being broken up for scrap by oxycutting. 
During this exciting process, I painted some small and medium circular canvases, known as tondos.
In Art, the circular format of the tondo was often used for religious subjects.
Extreme chiaroscuro was also exploited by artists such as Caravaggio, to heighten the contrast between the gloomy background and the intensely illuminated saints or angels.
The fire in the dim interior gave the scene a mysterious atmosphere, reminding me of the nocturnal paintings of one of my favourite artists, Georges de la Tour.
Figures in his paintings are enveloped in shifting accretions of darkness - hands and features picked out by pooling, smoky light.
 
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"















Oxycutting is one of the oldest welding processes.
A torch is used to heat the metal to its kindling temperature. When it's cherry red, a stream of oxygen is focused on the heated part and chemically reacts with the ferrous metal, producing more heat and forming molten iron oxide which is then blasted out of the cut.
The melting point of the iron oxide is about half that of the metal being cut, so it will immediately turn to liquid iron oxide and flow away from the cutting zone.
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"














Starting a cut in the middle of a workpiece is known as piercing.
Once it has started, steel can be cut surprisingly quickly, far faster than if it were completely melted through.
Sometimes remnants of iron oxide remain on the workpiece, forming a hard "slag" which can be removed by tapping or grinding.
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW6 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 acrylic on paper 56 x 76cm

















The hottest part of the flame is approximately 6,000 °F (3,300 °C) - hot enough to easily melt steel.
But the flame of the cutting torch is not intended to melt the metal, just bring it to its ignition temperature.
The rest of the heat is created by the burning metal itself.
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"
.
A basic oxy-acetylene rig is faster than a petrol-driven cut-off grinder, as well as lighter, smaller, quieter and not as prone to severe vibration. 
Oxy-acetylene torches can easily cut through ferrous materials as thick as 200 mm. 
However oxy-acetylene has its limitations. It can only efficiently cut low- to medium-carbon steels and wrought iron.
High-carbon steels aren't suitable because the melting point of the slag is closer to the melting point of the parent meta.The slag from the cutting action mixes with the clean melt near the cut, which means the oxygen doesn't reach the clean metal to burn it. With cast iron, graphite between the grains interferes with the cutting action of the torch. Stainless steels can't be cut either with this process, because the material doesn't burn as easily.
Plein air painting of oxycutting machinery in the interior of the disused foundry William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
AWW7 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry 2
2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo
Painting this was fascinating, but there was an undercurrent of sadness, as it
marked the point of no return.
The life of the former foundry was at an end, and its vivisection will be the last fires lit inside.

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

Related posts

Rust Bucket

Steady Rest

Scar Tissue

Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

All fired up

Eveleigh - Industrial heritage artist at work

Irons in the fire

White Bay Power Station - Inside Out

Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station

Thursday 2 May 2019

Selfie at South Eveleigh (Watching the forge fires fade)

I don't usually paint self portraits, but this is the exception.
I've been asked to exhibit in "Selfie", an exhibition of self portraits by artists who don't normally specialize in portraiture.
I have painted myself in front of the largest surviving forge remaining in Australia, the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop
"Selfie" is on display from 11th - 26th May at 1047 Gallery, 1047 Botany Road Mascot.
Opening Saturday 11th may 2-5pm, closing drinks 26th May 2-4pm.
 Open Saturday & Sunday 11 am - 4pm
0401 037 359     ten-forty-seven@mail.com

Invitation to "Selfie" Exhibition at 1047 Gallery, 1047 Botany Road Mascot
Invitation to "Selfie" Exhibition at 1047 Gallery
















 

self portrait with blacksmith forging at Eveleigh Works, South Eveleigh by industrial Heritage artist Jane Bennett
 E158 'Watching the forge fires fade'
 2019 acrylic on canvas 31 x 61cm
 










Available for sale
From 1886 until the 1980s, the Blacksmith’s Workshop produced equipment and parts for manufacturing and maintaining steam locomotives.
The modern blacksmiths of Eveleigh Works still use traditional machinery in homage to this bygone era of steam trains and handmade tools.
However, despite their much-loved status as icons of industrial heritage, the blacksmiths face an uncertain fate as a Woolworths will be built next door. 
In the maelstrom of inner city gentrification, blacksmiths are anachronisms; living fossils from the 19th century.
Much like plein air painters, I suppose.
The deep shadows and dramatic lighting of the forge evoke the evocative, melancholy poetry of nocturnal scenes painted by my heroes Caravaggio, Joseph Wright of Derby and Georges de la Tour. Their nocturnes are ‘memento mori’ paintings contemplating  transience and mortality. The flickering flame will soon be extinguished. 
My canvas is cloaked in darkness, yet a flash of intense illumination throws eerie green highlights across my face. Behind me the blacksmith darts gracefully backwards and forwards in his dangerous dance with fire.
My face looms in the foreground towards the viewer, lost in thought. My gaze doesn’t meet the viewer directly, but peers intently at something just out of sight. Am I looking back in nostalgia to the past, or staring warily at an unknown future?

Sunday 27 February 2011

Irons in the Fire - Part 5 'Playing with Fire'

Paintings of the Blacksmiths at Wrought Artworks,
Bay 1/2 Australian Technology Park,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops
oil painting of blacksmith at Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'Lok forging at Wrought Artworks' 
2010 oil painting on canvas 
36 x 46 cm
Sold
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It was hard to catch Lok on his own without Dave (who was centre stage in the previous painting) from the viewpoint I had, but worth it -he looks quite heroic! I didn't want to move my position in case I got in the way.
I feel that the movement implied in the pose and the glow cast by the light from the furnace capture the element of danger of this ancient craft.
I've always loved the paintings of Caravaggio,  Georges de La Tour and the 18th century painter of the early days of the Industrial Revolution, Joseph Wright of Derby. As well as his most famous masterpieces about the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, the 'Orrery' and 'Experiment on a bird in an Airpump', Joseph Wright of Derby had painted a wonderful series of canvases of blacksmiths at the forge.
I stayed in Derby while I was on my Marten Bequest Travelling Art Scholarship, and frequently visited the Derby Art Gallery, where most of Wright's work is displayed.
My paintings of the blacksmiths are painted from life, but also pay tribute to these masters of the effects of light and shadow.

The village smithy (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)