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.
Showing posts with label Union Square. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Union Square. Show all posts

Friday 3 July 2020

Black cat of Union Square

Are black cats lucky?
People seem to be equally divided into those who think its lucky to have a black cat cross their path, and those who think it's very unlucky.
I feel this cat was a lucky omen for this particular nook of Pyrmont.
Union Square, in contrast to many other parts of Pyrmont, had kept much of its original character. Unlike many other inner city neighbourhoods, this one has so far dodged the relentless rollout of Westconnex and other highways and tollways that has blitzed several other nearby suburbs on the fringe of the city.
In 2009, the NSW Government's proposal for a Metro entrance in the charming historical precinct of Union Square had threatened to obliterate one of the last remaining vestiges of Pyrmont's heritage. But times and governments change, and the whole project was cancelled in 2010. The vaguely Parisian atmosphere of Union Square remains a charming contrast to the bloated pomposity of the Star Casino only a block away. 
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P277 Union Square Terraces + Paternoster Row
2011 oil on canvas  31 x 103cm

One of the many joys of plein air painting is that the time that I have to spend looking at my subject reveals tiny details lost to a more casual observer.
On the corner of Union st and Paternoster Row there is a faded and clumsily drawn painting of an almost headless black cat, which goes mostly unnoticed by the passing cyclists. It fascinates me that this cryptic little fragment has somehow escaped being scraped off or obliterated with a schmick new paint job.
It was painted by an eccentric street artist Bruno Dutot some time between about 1989 and 1991 before the arrival of a more strident fashion in graffiti from New York a few years later.
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P277 Detail of cat painted on wall-
Union Square Terraces + Paternoster Row
2011  oil on canvas  31 x 103cm
Available




















This fragment of a cat once had a very soigne companion, painted in a style reminiscent of Erte, but in an endearingly amateur fashion. She was a slender, highly stylized and stylish woman called rather weirdly, "Oucha", and versions of this image cropped up all over the inner city in her heyday of the late 1980s - 1990s.
I remember passing her strangely elongated image on the corner of Union Square and Paternoster Row, back in the days when Union Square had two-way traffic and was a shortcut to the Fishmarkets and Glebe.
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P274 Union Square Terraces 4 -
a little piece of Paris in Pyrmont
 2010 oil on canvas  31 x 61cm
Available















The painting above shows Union Square from Paternoster Row down to Pyrmont Street. It was painted in 2010, just before the cancellation of the Metro plans had been made public.
Back then, the chimneys of the Pyrmont Power Station loomed over the terraces of Union Square instead of the equally monolithic Casino. The 'Harlequin Inn' which can be seen to the right of this canvas, on the corner of Union Square and Harris Street, was then the more down at heel 'Duke of Wellington' and boasted a huge and incongruous cartwheel as a wall feature. The two way road has been transformed into a one way lane with a large pedestrian area circling the "Angel of Union Square", with seating and odd sandstone 'mushrooms' (actually part of the balustrade salvaged long ago from the now pedestrianized Pyrmont Bridge) But, essentially, very little has changed in Union Square since the 1980s.
Plein air oil painting of Pyrmont Post Office and the Pyrmont War Memorial Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P242 Pyrmont Post Office
1993 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
Available

















The painting above was painted in the early 1990s from the other end of Union Square, and shows the intersection of Union Square and Miller Street as a two-way street before it became a plaza. The "Angel of Union Square" is in the centre and behind her is the Commonwealth Bank painted a particularly horrid shade of "Paddington Pink". On the extreme right is a corner of the "Duke of Wellington" Hotel, and on the right is the golden sandstone archway of the Walter Liberty Vernon designed Pyrmont Post Office.
The last example of "Oucha" that I know of, can still be seen on a corner of Edgecliff road on the left hand side travelling from the city towards Edgecliff. She is occasionally repainted, possibly even by the original artist, and sometimes decorated with glitter.
She and her cat are relics of a less worldly age.
The wall above the cat has an obvious tidemark where "Oucha" has been painted over with more enthusiasm than skill and it remains distinctly two-toned.
Plein air oil painting of Pyrmont war Memorial "Angel Of Union Square"of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P276 Angel of Union Square
2010 oil on wood 23 x 12cm
Available





















The lovely First World War monument known locally as the "Angel of Union Square" seems to have had a protective effect over her square, acting as a shield against marauding developers.
But I like to think of the little faded and forgotten black cat as her mascot.

See more paintings of Union Square at the Pyrmont page in my blog

Related Posts


Saturday 2 June 2012

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival


Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont painted en plein air by Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festiva
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett
at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The photos of the display are courtesy of Frances Keevil, who also very kindly took time out from the gallery to hang and help me label the work. If not for Frances I'd probably still be there trying to cable tie canvases onto the security fence. It was still a nightmare to hang, and having to cable tie extremely valuable and historic paintings to a security fence is far from ideal.
The artworks are at risk of being damaged, and so was I. Due to the unfortunate timing of the Sydney half marathon being run on the morning of the event and the roads being closed as a consequence, there was very little time to unload my art and hang it.
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont painted en plein air by Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festiva
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by
Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

I had brought 50 paintings on canvas and board for the exhibition. The largest was a 61 x 183cm canvas of a panorama of "Union Square" and the smallest was a tiny work on board of a detail of a window of the Terminus Hotel that at 9 x 13cm could fit in the palm of your hand.
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont painted en plein air by Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festiva
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by
Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This shows a couple of paintings of the CSR with some information sheets about my experiences creating them.
I also brought a small folio of works on paper, most of which had never been previously exhibited.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont painted en plein air by Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festiva
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by
Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Despite the rain we had a good audience. I met lots of people who once lived or worked in Pyrmont as well as many of the new residents of Jacksons Landing and the apartments on top of Pyrmont Point.
I am now trying to complete 6 commissions resulting from contacts made on this day.
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont painted en plein air by Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festiva
Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett
at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This shows a corner of my stall. I'm glad I decided to add this to my allotted space on the security fence, as the stall gave a little shelter from the rain, and I wouldn't have been able to display my books or photos of the rest of my work otherwise.
But the stall and the fence for the daily cost $220, which Ned Kelly would have been ashamed of.
Pyrmont Point was once the site of no less than 5 of my studios. Had the earlier businesses and residents of Pyrmont been as greedy, I wouldn't have been able to create any of the paintings that the current residents enjoy.
Wood if I could...
Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I had made eleven small table easels in the weeks before as preparation for the event. Small paintings would get lost on the fencing next to larger works, and it freed up space for sheets of information about my series of Pyrmont paintings. The historical context is becoming more and more important as time goes by and the new residents seek information about their area.
Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I'm no carpenter - in fact I've very rarely picked up a hammer or screwdriver in my life before. I had bought a couple of little easels, but they were fairly useless. They tended to collapse or fall over easily - not a good look in a public exhibition. I couldn't find anything that would serve my purpose in the art shops they were either far too big or small, much too expensive, or had useless fiddly bits that would soon snap off or stab an expensive painting in the back.
I was sick of playing "Goldilocks" so I decided to try my hand at making what I needed despite a total lack of skill, knowledge, experience or the correct tools or materials.
I used some bits of scrap wood I found lying around the garden.
"Recycled" is probably too kind a word for it, "rubbish" is closer to the mark. It was a motley collection salvaged from a warped canvas stretcher,part of an old fence, a couple of garden stakes and a rotting pallet that a neighbour put out for council clean-up. But once I had sanded them and covered up the wonky bits with wood stain they scrubbed up quite well.
These "easels" are just simple A frame tripods. I didn't even attempt to make them with adjustable heights. which I knew was well beyond my almost non-existent woodworking abilities. Also most of my easels with adjustable heights have some major design flaw anyway that makes them hell to use.

Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
These are simply to prop up a small to medium size painting so it can be seen with a bit of dignity at an event where there is no hanging system, and very limited time to prepare the display.
No two of them are the same size or shape. I practice saying "quirky rustic charm" a lot.
Plein air oil painting of "Terminus Hotel" by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"Terminus Hotel" displayed on a Table easel
made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
2010 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

But they do the job.
The red cedar woodstain especially suited the Terminus Hotel paintings, as it picked up the burnt siena of the ivy -covered bricks.
Plein air oil painting of Sandstone gargoyle on top of Maclaurin Hall University of Sydney  by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
oil painting of "Gargoyle on spire of
Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney"
displayed on a Table easel made of recycled timber
2009 oil on board 25 x 20cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This shows my painting of "Gargoyle on spire of Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney" displayed on a table easel that I made from parts of a shabby old frame that had warped and had to be removed. Unfortunately I discovered at the festival that the white paint blistered in the rain, so I have now taken it apart, sanded it back and given it a coat of the same red cedar wood stain so it now matches the others.
For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant 
 
A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point
Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2 

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Recently Sold Paintings : Pyrmont Paintings at Workplace 6

Plein air oil painting  of Union Square Pyrmont and Pyrmont Street from the roof of the Pyrmont Power Station painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Pyrmont Panorama :
Union Square from the Roof of Pyrmont Power Station
1993 oil on canvas 91 x 122cm
SOLD
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
Enquiries about other Pyrmont paintings

This canvas was from one of my favourite studios - in Pyrmont the roof of the old Pyrmont Power Station.
Many of my paintings concentrate on the spectacular Sydney Harbour views, but for a change I painted the heritage precinct of worker’s cottages, Victorian terraces and bond stores, little knowing how much this view would soon change.
The bond stores next to the vacant lot would soon make way for the substation between Pyrmont and Harris streets. The old “Duke of Edinburgh” hotel on the corner of Union and Harris Streets was renovated and is now called the “Harlequin Inn”.
The handsome sandstone building with a red tiled roof was the Pyrmont Post Office, and has now become the Pyrmont branch of the Bendigo Community Bank.
I exhibited this work as part of my Pyrmont display at Workplace6 during the Sydney Open.
While that exhibition was not intended to be a commercial show, many people contacted my gallery, the Frances Keevil Gallery afterwards to enquire about the paintings.