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 White Bay Power Station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Bay Power Station. Show all posts

Monday 8 October 2012

Tower of Power- Drawings of the White Bay Power Station

White Bay, an often overlooked part of Sydney's industrial and maritime heritage will soon be radically overhauled.
ink wash and gouache drawing on paper of White Bay Power Station, Rozelle by artist Jane Bennett
'White Bay Power Station' 2012
ink gouache on paper 30 x 21cm

FINALIST : 2012 KEDUMBA DRAWING PRIZE




















Enquiries

I have painted many of its current and former landmarks, including the Unilever site, the White Bay Power Station and the notorious White Bay Hotel, (which was 'mysteriously' burnt down) ever since they were all operational in the late 70s - early 80s.

ink wash and gouache drawing on paper of White Bay Power Station, Rozelle by artist Jane Bennett
'Chimneys of the White Bay Power Station 2' 2012
ink gouache on paper 30 x 21cm
FINALIST : 2012 KEDUMBA DRAWING PRIZE
Enquiries
This is a group of 4 small ink wash and gouache drawings on paper, which I have decided to enter in the 2012 Kedumba Invitational Drawing Prize.
ink wash and gouache drawing on paper of White Bay Power Station, Rozelle by artist Jane Bennett
'Coal Loader White Bay Power Station' 2012
ink gouache on paper 30 x 21cm

FINALIST : 2012 KEDUMBA DRAWING PRIZE





















It seems a strange distortion of scale to create such small works in response to such a slumbering beast as the gigantic Power Station. Usually I paint an enormous canvas to try to capture its heroic proportions.
However there are so many exquisite details which can get lost in a larger composition that I was glad of the opportunity to focus on them. Every inch of this rusting monster is worthy of a painting, so that it is difficult to choose.
ink wash and gouache drawing on paper of White Bay Power Station, Rozelle by artist Jane Bennett
'Coal Loader and Chimney White Bay Power Station'
 2012 ink gouache on paper 30 x 21cm
FINALIST : 2012 KEDUMBA DRAWING PRIZE


And I will have to choose quickly.
Now the White Bay Transit Shed has been partially demolished and the site re-developed as the controversial new Cruise ship terminal.
Glebe Island wharf, once used for offloading cars, has been eerily empty since the departure of ex-HMAS Adelaide to its watery grave off North Avoca in 2011.
A temporary exhibition venue will soon be built on this space to replace the Darling Harbour complex while it is being refurbished.
A road will soon be built on the empty site where the "Great Gatsby" had been filmed last year, to link all these new developments to civilization.
oil painting on canvas of White Bay Power Station, Rozelle by artist Jane Bennett
"White Bay Power Station after rain"
2012 oil on canvas 183 x 112cm
Sold 
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY

So I feel that the days of the White Bay Power Station as a hulking urban ghost are numbered. 
One day the sleeping giant will wake.... 
To what sort of future? 
Update

Saturday 12 May 2012

Keep your eyes on the prize (and your finger off the trigger)

3 "Highly Commended" Awards in the past 3 days!
One off winning $1,250.
One off winning another $1,250.
And one off winning $5,000.
Don't know whether I should accept congratulations or commiserations.
I hadn't known until I collected my paintings today that I had been awarded two "High Commendations" for my entries in the Camden Art Prize.
I had been awarded the "Highly Commended" for  "The Art of Navigation". This is a memento mori painting of antique navigation instruments, and pays tribute to the famous 18th century navigator La Perouse.

still life oil painting of antique navigation instruments"The Art of Navigation" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm by Artist, Jane Bennett
"The Art of Navigation" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm














Yet another "Highly Commended" in the "Works on Paper" Section for a moody charcoal and ink interior, "The Turbine Hall Of the White Bay Power Station"

charcoal drawing of industrial Heritage"The Turbine Hall Of the White Bay Power Station" 2011 charcoal, pastel and ink on paper 75 x 100cm by Jane Bennett, Artist
"The Turbine Hall Of the White Bay Power Station"
2011 charcoal, pastel and ink on paper 75 x 100cm
The "Blacksmiths, Eveleigh" ranked first of the five "High Commendations" awarded in the Open Section of the Hunters Hill Art prize, making it the runner-up.

oil painting on canvas  of industrial heritage"The Blacksmiths, Eveleigh Railway Workshops" oil on canvas 91 x 122cm by Artist, Jane Bennett
"The Blacksmiths, Eveleigh Railway Workshops" 
oil on canvas 91 x 122cm
"The Navigator and the King"
The Art of Navigation
New still life paintings of navigation instruments
Inside Out
Power
Time for Safety
The fire within
Eveleigh - Industrial Heritage Artist at Work
Strike while the iron is hot
All fired up
The village smithy (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)
En plein air with street cred (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)

Tuesday 18 October 2011

"May close without warning" Solo exhibition at Frances Keevil Gallery Part 2 "All that is solid melts into air"

More Paintings and Drawings from my solo exhibition
"May close without warning"
at the Frances Keevil Gallery
11 - 30 OCTOBER 2011
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au

'May Close without warning...'


 My paintings and drawings are accompanied by some excerpts from "The Meanings of Deindustrialization" by Jefferson Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, Saint Louis University 2003  Faculty Publications - Collective Bargaining, Labor Law, and Labor History. Paper 33
Urban decay - Industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett painting 'en plein air' at the White Bay Power Station
Painting 'en plein air'  "White Bay Power Station " 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings























"The point of departure for any discussion of deindustrialization must be respect
for the despair and betrayal felt by workers as their mines, factories,
and mills were padlocked, abandoned, turned into artsy shopping spaces, or even dynamited."

Urban decay -  plein air oil painting of the White Bay Power Station by Industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"White Bay Power Station " 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings


"While economists and business leaders often speak in neutral, even hopeful, terms such as "restructuring," "downsizing" or "creative destruction," metaphors of defeat and subjugation are more appropriate for the workers who banked on good-paying industrial jobs for the livelihoods of their families and their communities..."

Urban decay -  plein air oil painting of the White Bay Power Station by Industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'en plein air' 
"White Bay Power Station Chimney stacks"
2011 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm
Enquiries

"
In fact, the first public use of the term "deindustrialization" identified the Allies' policy toward Germany just after World War II: an active process of victors stripping a vanquished nation of its industrial power."

Urban decay -  plein air oil painting of the White Bay Power Station by Industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"White Bay Power Station Coal Loader" 
2011 oil on board 35 x 28cm

























"The dramatic evidence of industrial change and capital flight that litters our landscapes does, however, present a basic collective problem: How do we account for the destruction of an economic order that seemed so rooted and pervasive?"

Urban decay -  plein air  charcoal drawing of the Cooperage CSR Refinery now Jacksons Landing Pyrmont by Industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"Industrial Cathedral"
charcoal drawing on paper 131 x 131 cm 























This drawing was a finalist in the 1998 Dobell Prize for Drawing (Art Gallery of N.S.W.) ; Finalist in 1998 Blake Prize for Religious Art ; Winner of 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize
"In the end, what may be most troubling about these ruined industrial landscapes is not that they refer to some once stable era, but rather that they remind us of the ephemeral quality of the world we take for granted."

Industrial heritage - demolition of wharf 8 cruise ship terminal at Barangaroo plein air oil painting by artist Jane Bennett
"Grabber, Muncher, Ripper"
2010 oil on canvas 31 x 31 cm

























Outside the derelict wharf, the demolition team waited patiently for all the preliminary drilling and checks to be completed before they got the green light to start.
The parrot beaks of the excavation attachments and their scarred and scaly skin reminded me of the animated re-creations of Tyrannosaurus rex.
These particular attachments are actually really called "Munchers"! The names of other attachments eg. "Buckets", "Grabbers", "Rippers" and "Pulverizers" are also reminiscent of comic books and children's toys.

"If Karl Marx was right in saying "all that is solid melts into air," then the industrial culture forged in the furnace of fixed capital investment was itself a temporary condition. What millions of working men and women might have experienced as solid, dependable, decently waged work really only lasted for a brief moment in the history of capitalism."

Industrial heritage - Blacksmiths at Eveleigh Railway Workshops  oil painting by artist Jane Bennett
"Dave and Lok forging at 'Wrought Artworks', Eveleigh Railway Workshops" 2010 oil on canvas 36 x 46cm
Enquiries

"Because capital was fixed in giant machines bolted to the floors of brick-and-mortar factories, the industrial culture that emerged in various places at various moments had an aura of permanence, durability, and heritage....."

Urban decay and Industrial heritage - charcoal and ink drawing of Mungo Scott Flour Mills Summer Hill by artist Jane Bennett
Panorama drawn from the top of the silos of the 
"Mungo Scott Flour Mills, Summer Hill" 
2010 charcoal, ink and gouache on paper 118 x 118cm


















The Operations of these flour mills have been transferred to Picton, on the periphery of the south western suburbs, about 2 years ago. Now this mill will be redeveloped into an apartment complex similar to other former mills in Dulwich Hill and Newtown.
Industrial heritage -Blacksmith Eveleigh Railway Workshops oil painting by artist Jane Bennett
"Forging chisels (Drawing down), 
'Wrought Artworks' Eveleigh Railway Workshops" 
2011 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm

"Working people saw in the decline of this industrial order the dissolution of their society, culture, and way of life, and the betrayal of their trust by those whose decisions shaped their fate."

Related posts