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 Sydney Harbour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney Harbour. Show all posts

Thursday 13 January 2022

Tipping Point -MV Baragoola

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

From the 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”   by Ernest Hemingway
Another version of "Hemingway's Law of Motion " is  by the  economist Rudiger Dornbusch:
"The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought."
It's a common human failing that we rarely act until a crisis happens.
The initial effects happen gradually.
Drip by drip.
It's not a problem...
Until it is.
One day 'Gradually' will always  become 'suddenly'. 
This is the tipping point.
I will leave it to others to recount the long, troubled history of the MV Baragoola.
The best  account I've found is in an article in the Manly Daily.
Plein air painting of Sydney Harbour from the ferry MV Baragoola by maritime artist Jane Bennett
Half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm Against the staircase of MV Baragoola
About 6 or 7 years ago I was invited to paint on board by one of the members of the Baragoola Preservation Society. He talked about the possibility of holding an exhibition with the proceeds being used to help fund repairs. The ship was in obvious need of  massive amounts of work, but at the time, the volunteers seemed to have enthusiasm and a sense of purpose.
Plein air painting of Sydney Harbour from the ferry MV Baragoola by maritime artist Jane Bennett
Half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm
This is the last painting I started on board the Baragoola, before her change of ownership.

Plein air painting of Sydney Harbour from the ferry MV Baragoola by maritime artist Jane Bennett
The artist painting a half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm
A couple of years later I finally returned after dealing with a serious illness in the family, to find a change of regime. Instead of the previous volunteers there was someone described variously as either the new  "shipkeeper" or "owner".
The ship was in a far more dilapidated condition and the gangplank was frankly dangerous with loose and missing railings
I was welcomed at first, then gradually the behaviour of those on board became strange and then alarming. I desperately wanted to remove my paintings and easel, but I would have needed help across the ricketty gangplank- and I knew I wouldn't get any.
The terrible condition of the vessel and gangplank as well as my reservations about the attitude and behaviour of the recent occupants made it impossible for me to ever return to the vessel to retrieve my belongings. I wondered at first if I was over-reacting- until I asked several people if they could escort me back on the vessel, and they all refused, saying they wouldn't be game to set foot on board.
I kept hoping that people with expertise and unlimited funding would one day take control, but knew that this wasn't going to happen.
The half-finished canvas above, as well as my easels, paint and many other canvases went down with the ship. 
The mooring lines still hold parts of it in place, while the weight of water, tide and debris pulls the rest away. 
As I paint the wreck from the Coal Loader and the Cape Don, I watch  my old canvases lap against the boom with the other flotsam.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The last line from the 1925 novel "The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tuesday 4 August 2020

Painting Sydney Harbour in the footsteps of Turner

All this winter I've felt something's been lacking.
Vivid.
Due to Covid-19 it couldn't be held this year, and for all I know New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrations may not be held in the foreseeable future either.
I've often mocked Sydney for valuing style over substance, but I have to confess that I like a mindlessly pretty display of fairy lights against a harbour view as much as anyone.
So for anyone getting withdrawal symptoms, here's one on the easel of my deck gallery.
Oil painting - nocturne of Sydney Harbour with tall ship, fireworks and Sydney Harbour Bridge painted by industrial and marine artist Jane Bennett
U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale

This canvas of the burning ship against a backdrop of fireworks illuminating the Sydney Harbour Bridge was painted in the studio from a series of quick gouache studies that I did on New Year's Eve 2003, well over a decade before Vivid was ever thought of. I regard this as a sort of 'proto-Vivid'.
It added a new dimension to the usual fireworks and was a startling sight if you weren't aware that it was in fact a special effect, and not a tragic fire on board the 'James Craig'.
The first time I saw it, like hundreds, possibly thousands of others, I rang 000 in a panic to report it. You could almost hear the person from Emergency Services rolling their eyes, as they assured me that it was just a special effect, that , no, the James Craig was just fine, and thanked me for my misplaced concern.
The Fireship apparently commemorated an early 19th century convict ship that had caught fire, and in the weeks after, during the Sydney Festival, there was a 'son et lumiere' show every night for a couple of weeks. I forget the details and the story, and frankly I think everyone else did as well. The images of the fire reflected in the water were all the spectators really were interested in, and the story seemed just a flimsy excuse.
As I painted some quick sketches in gouache and watercolour, I was glad that i'd spent so much of my 1996 Marten Bequest Traveling Art Scholarship holed up in the Print and Drawing Room of the Clore Gallery (the section of the Tate Gallery devoted to the work of Turner, obsessively painting studies of the many fabulous Turner watercolours in their collection. The Petworth series and the burning of the Houses of Parliament were my favourites. I became so good at painting them that the staff became slightly alarmed, and demanded that I sign my studies on the back so that I wouldn't be able to do a bit of a 'switcheroo' while their backs were turned! I took this as a sort of a backhanded compliment, but my goal wasn't to just mindlessly copy, but to try to conquer the mystery of painting sea,sky, storm, night and fire. How to make the intangible, tangible.
When I returned from my Traveling Art Scholarship, I actually exhibited some of these in a couple of exhibitions "The Grand Tour" and "In the Footsteps of the Masters" that acted like a sort of debriefing - a transition phase from the scholarship to the routine of regular commercial exhibitions.
I'd seen a lot of amazing art, and learnt a lot, but how was I going to incorporate this into what I would paint on my return?
Oil painting - nocturne of Sydney Harbour with tall ship, fireworks and Sydney Harbour Bridge painted by industrial and marine artist Jane Bennett
U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale

Painting the Fireship was a chance to give a virtuoso display of layers of translucent glazes of breathtakingly expensive and exotic colours such as Aureolin, Rose Madder and Alizarin Crimson. These aren't the sort of colours that usually get a work out during plein air painting.
However, as I started to paint lost trades and dying industries, I would get more and more frequent opportunities to use them. Subjects like the Oxycutter at William Wallbank and Sons, or the Blacksmiths at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops provided further connections to the lost world of the Early Industrial Revolution that Turner and his predecessors de Loutherbourg and Joseph Wright of Derby immortalized. The major difference is that these artists were painting the founding of this era - I'm painting its demise.

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Vivid

Meltdown, Oxycutting at William Wallbank and Sons

Irons in the fire

Tuesday 14 July 2020

Millers Point from the top of the Harbour Control Tower

Before the inevitable demolition of the Harbour Control Tower, I wanted to paint a very large panorama of this amazing view.
I'd had the run of the top floor and the amenities level of the 87 metre high Harbour Control Tower from the early 2000s until port operations finished there in April 2011. Afterwards I had occasional access to create paintings of various stages of the construction of Barangaroo. 
I'd spent many unforgettable New Year’s Eves on the top floor, painting 360 degrees of the fireworks exploding underneath against the spectacular harbour view.
The perspective was very tricky, so I warmed up with a few smaller works first.
This is a small study of the rooftops of the heritage Miller's Point terraces and the former Bond stores of the Walsh Bay Wharves.
Plein air oil painting of Miller's Point  and Walsh Bay Wharves from top of the Harbour Control Tower painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Work in progress " Miller's Point  and Walsh Bay Wharves
from top of the Harbour Control Tower "
2014 oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm
.
There was such an overwhelming mass of tiny details that I needed to tackle this subject in a series of small works before risking getting bogged down in a huge oil painting. I wanted to understand the rhythm of the landscape.
The perspective is made more complex by the landbridges over the twisting streets winding their way from the angled rows of Walsh Bay Wharves up the hills.
The entire suburb of Miller's Point lies at my feet and the roads seem to curve towards the Opera House in the middle distance.
Plein air oil painting of Miller's Point  and Walsh Bay Wharves from top of the Harbour Control Tower painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
HCT47  'Millers Point from top of Harbour Tower'
oil on canvas 36 x 46cm



















As you can see, my palette changed by the time I finished this work - one of the hazards of working 'en plein air'. I started early, but didn't finish for a few hours, so the clear pale yellows of the morning deepened to the burnt orange and rich purple shadows of the afternoon.
I had to stand on a chair to paint this, as the windows on the Amenities floor were a bit too high for me to see the terraces.
I'm only 5'1"- short, even for a woman.
Exactly the same height as Toulouse-Lautrec. Unfortunately I love painting canvases on an epic scale
.
The tower would sway in the wind, sometimes almost imperceptibly, and sometimes with a rolling motion that can induce seasickness which is distracting when trying to paint fine details.
In the far distance, you can see the silhouette of the half-demolished Hammerhead Crane on Garden Island, which was finally removed by October 2014. I had just finished a stint as 'Artist in Residence' on Garden Island painting this before the demolition started.
The demolition of the Harbour Control Tower would be next. However I did manage to finish a few large scale panoramas from the top floor, before I lost one of my best studios forever.
The State library now has several of these works in their collection.

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Tuesday 23 June 2020

The Last of the Hungry Mile- Harbour Control Tower from East Darling Harbour Wharves

Today's canvas was painted from inside Wharf 4 in East Darling Harbour Wharves during the its last few weeks as a working port.
Plein air oil painting of Harbour Control Tower from East Darling Harbour Wharves (now Barangaroo) painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
DH181 The last of the Hungry Mile   
2007  oil on canvas  180 x 122cm
FINALIST 2007 SULMAN PRIZE














The once bustling wharf became a ghost town, as the cargo-loading infrastructure was dismantled, the 3 shore cranes were loaded onto barges for Port Kembla or Webb Dock, and anything remaining was put into storage or into a skip bin.
The wharf has now closed forever and Sydney’s traditional role as a working harbour is nearly over.
For Sydney Harbour to be stripped of its original character and purpose, was almost unthinkable.
Abandoned places have a haunting beauty.
They are points of temporary stasis in the turning world of urban change.
It was eerily silent; waiting for the demolition to start and the genesis of Barangaroo to begin.
Barangaroo is about hubris - a grand feat of ambitious central planning in search of a purpose. The vaunted economic rebirth of the area has like so much else been sent into hibernation by the Covid crisis.

Plein air oil painting of Harbour Control Tower from East Darling Harbour Wharves (now Barangaroo) painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
DH181 The last of the Hungry Mile   
2007  oil on canvas  180 x 122cm
FINALIST 2007 SULMAN PRIZE
























The columns of light poles point towards the Harbour Control Tower, which was one of the last vestiges of the working port in the area, and was demolished a few years later.
This Port Operations and Communication Centre was a milestone in the history and operation of the Port of Sydney. The construction of the tower gave oversight of maritime operations over all the Port of Sydney for the first time.
Nestling underneath, on the escarpment is the historic Hotel Palisade, once a rough waterside early opener, now gentrified for the expected inflow of tourists to Barangaroo on the west and the revamped Walsh Bay Wharves to the north-east.

Saturday 20 June 2020

In the shadow of the Bridge -Night Observatory Hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a nocturne painted from Observatory Hill.
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available
I've often painted the Rocks and Millers Point from this vantage point.
When I used to teach art classes, I'd give everyone a map of the best spots to sit so they could avoid having to include the Blues Point Tower!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available

































This view looks straight down Lower Fort Street where I have also frequently painted the heritage terraces, the Garrison church, the Harbourview and 'Hero of Waterloo' hotels.
Some of this collection are on my Miller's Point page in this blog.
It's a postcard perfect Sydney Harbour scene during the day. but at night the shadows make it evocative and mysterious.
The tales from the rowdy and sometimes sinister era of the Rocks 'Push' don't seem to be quite as distant at night!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm

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Vivid

No Place like home

Tie a yellow Ribbon

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Vivid

I have an exhibition of paintings inspired by 'Vivid' now on display at the Four Seasons Hotel, 199 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney.
This hotel is almost 'Vivid Headquarters'.
It is only 100 metres from the best vantage points to view the spectacular lighting the sails of the Opera House, and the facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay painted by artist Jane Bennett
'Vivid - Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay (Rainbow lights)' 2015 oil on canvas 102 x 200cm
SOLD
Enquiries about other Sydney Harbour paintings
Brett Whiteley often painted the magnificent view from Lavender Bay. 
It looks even better at night, however I don't think that many other artists have painted nocturnes of Sydney Harbour.
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge and lighting the sails of the Opera House  painted by artist Jane Bennett
'Vivid - Lighting the Sails-Luna Park on the Opera House'
2015 oil on canvas 152 x 122cm
Enquiries
Of all the images projected onto the sails of the Opera House, my favourite would be Luna Park.
It revives memories of the cheeky imagery by Martin Sharp, Peter Kingston and other larrikin ratbag artists who revered and helped defend Luna Park.

Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival hanging in the Four Seasons Hotel The Rocks Sydney- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  & Lighting the sails of the Sydney Opera House painted by artist Jane Bennett
Painting inspired by Vivid festival hanging
in the Four Seasons Hotel in The Rocks Sydney -
From left to right :
'Vivid - Lighting the Sails-Luna Park on the Opera House'
2015 oil on canvas 152 x 122cm
'Fireship' oil on paper 136 x 112cm
'Fireship' oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay painted by artist Jane Bennett
















The angle of the lighting on the painting has cast a faint rainbow as a halo above the span of the Bridge.
See more at the Ultimate Art Gallery
Four Seasons Hotel Sydney
199 George St, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
P.O Box 1347, Crows Nest NSW 2065
Phone: +61 (4) 35 844 347
Email: info@ultimateart.com.au


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Friday 25 July 2014

North Barangaroo Headland Park - The thin blue line

My stint as 'Artist in Residence' in my Studio on the top floor of the Sydney Ports Corporation's Moore's Wharf has given me a front row seat to paint the evolution of the former Wharf 3 at East Darling Harbour Wharves (formerly the Customs Shed) into the North Barangaroo Headland Park.
North Barangaroo Headland Park - plein air oil painting of construction of North Barangaroo Headland Park from my studio at Moore's Wharf by marine and industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
 MW16 'North Barangaroo Headland Park-
The 'Blue Line' from Moore's Wharf ' 
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
I painted this in September 2011 from the western window of my Moore's Wharf studio, which overlooks the construction site that will soon be the North Barangaroo Headland Park.
Apart from the recent Open day in June, Barangaroo would still probably be an unfamiliar location to most people,  unless they live or work locally.
In the background of these 2 paintings, Balmain is the headland on the left, Goat Island is on the right, and in the centre distance is Ballast Point in Birchgrove. Ballast Point, formerly a derelict refuelling depot, was refashioned into a park in 2008 by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. I'd been lucky enough to be able to paint a series of paintings at Ballast Point just before its transformation.
Some of the structures which were around the Ballast Point fuel tanks are still in a rusting heap mouldering away behind the White Bay Power Station, and can be seen in a couple of paintings I created on site as Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station.
On the concrete of the former wharf, there's a blue line painted in a series of stylized curves and zig-zags , to divide land from sea. A little like the line painted on many Sydney streets for the marathon of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, which is still visible in the oddest places.
No Olympic athletes here, just the odd local jogger or dog walker.
It's also a weird echo of the seemingly abstract lines of different colours used in its previous incarnation as a wharf, to distinguish pedestrian walkways from truck parking zones.
On the southern side of the line the sign "Headland Park" has been painted on a green background. On the other side of the line "Sydney Harbour" has been painted in the now ubiquitous Barangaroo blue.
Soon after this was painted, excavation began.
According to the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, the coastline is intended to follow the contours of the shore as it was before European settlement.
Liiterally, "cut along the dotted line".
North Barangaroo Headland Park - plein air oil painting of construction of North Barangaroo Headland Park from my studio at Moore's Wharf by marine and industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
 MW28 'North Barangaroo Headland Park -
The caissons from Moore's Wharf '
2013 oil on canvas 36 x 46cm

Enquiries about this painting
And, as you can see, they did.
This was painted in February 2013.
By this stage, the skin of the concrete surface has been pierced.
The caissons of the north end of the wharf are now exposed and full of water like a lot of tiny swimming pools.
The geometric symmetry of the wharf still remains, but mounds of sand and gravel hint at the new shoreline yet to come.
Soon the straight edge of the wharf will be broken, the caissons removed and the yellowblock sandstone will be carefully positioned around the new shoreline.
Lashed to the Mast - Plein Air painting, Moore's Wharf

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island

This was the 60 year old work boat known as the Crane Lighter 'Poolya', up on stumps, waiting forlornly at Glebe Island Wharf.


plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Starting my canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Enquiries about this painting
Despite being added to the State’s Heritage Register in March 2009 by the then Ports and Waterways Minister Joe Tripodi, here the “Poolya” is waiting to be broken up.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Starting my canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 

The 'Poolya', formerly known as the 'Kahibah', was built in 1949.
For a long time she was based at Goat Island.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Starting my canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 
Enquiries about this painting



















She was one of the vessels deployed to recover oil with her brush skimmer from the notorious 'Laura d'Amato' spill at Gore Cove on Wednesday 4th August 1999.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Half finished canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 
Enquiries about this painting



















I had been painting the renovation of the Walsh Bay Fingerwharves at the time of the Laura d'Amato incident. The smell of the spilt oil was utterly indescribable! I couldn't cope with the fumes and it was one of the few times that I had to go home without finishing my painting. I don't know how the men on board managed to handle it.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Half finished canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 
Enquiries about this painting



















Until 2012 the 'Poolya' was on standby at Moore's Wharf. 
When she was taken out of service with Sydney Ports Corporation the 'Poolya' was then given to the Sydney Heritage Fleet, who had originally intended to preserve her.
However the "Poolya" is a timber vessel, and all timber vessels are a lot of work. Eventually they get to the stage of requiring significant repair to keep them serviceable. This can rapidly spiral out of control. The 'Poolya', despite being regarded with great affection by the workers from Sydney Ports and the Sydney Heritage Fleet, had become commercially uneconomic.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
Half finished canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 

Enquiries about this painting
Sydney Ports Corporation have replaced her with a steel hulled vessel of a similar design concept, the 'Manns Point'.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat at Glebe Island by artist Jane Bennett
The finished canvas of
"The 'Poolya' at Glebe Island waiting to be broken up"
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm 

Enquiries about this painting
I was given the heads up by a couple of people at Sydney Ports who had a sentimental attachment to the 'Poolya'.
I arrived at the Glebe Island Operations Centre on Monday about noon and had this medium size canvas finished by the time the blokes wanted to knock off at 5.30pm.
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat near the Sydney Harbour Bridge by artist Jane Bennett
'Poolya' from Moore's Wharf'
2013 oil on canvas 12 x 12cm
Enquiries about similar paintings
Sold
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
I had painted a couple of small canvases of the 'Poolya' in her glory days while she was still operational. A few of these were painted from my loft on the top floor of Sydney Ports Corporation's Emergency Response Headquarters at Moore's Wharf. These canvases usually have a spectacular view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as well as the historic workboat.
Some of my paintings were in the "tondo" format. A tondo is a canvas stretched over a round or oval stretcher frame.
Some of the Sydney Ports Corporation wharfies would jokingly ask me "When will you be painting another pizza, Jane ?"
plein air oil painting of the 'Poolya' work boat near the Sydney Harbour Bridge by artist Jane Bennett
 'Poolya' from Moore's Wharf'
2013 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
SOLD

PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
Enquiries about similar paintings
When the 'Poolya' was broken up, a couple of contractors managed to souvenir the portholes.
So these 2 'Poolya' tondos ended up being framed behind these portholes and are now cherished trophies in some canny collector's living room.

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Storm warning, Goat Island (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)