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 architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label architecture. Show all posts

Wednesday 2 September 2020

Castle on a hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery was a panorama of Ways Terrace painted in 1994, when Pyrmont was a work in progress.
Ways Terrace is located at 12-20 Point Street, and is now known more prosaically as the Point Street flats.
Plein air oil painting of Ways Terrace in Pyrmont by Jane Bennett
P98 Ways Terrace 1994 oil on board 41 x 122cm








 
 
 
 
For nearly two decades, Ways Terrace was the sole occupant of the Point Street hilltop.
A castle on a hill, with a commanding position, precariously positioned on a rocky outcrop towering over the surrounding land.
Plein air ink & wash drawing of Ways Terrace in Pyrmont by artist Jane Bennett














 
 
P36 'Ways terrace from Lower Jones Bay Road'
1993 ink on paper 31 x 41cm 
However it is neither the rumoured birthplace of King Arthur, a crusader castle nor a Walt Disney fairytale castle, but Housing Commission flats. Many battles have been fought there, but they have involved residents and squatters against developers, residents against various government and semi-government departments, and old residents against new residents. These battles more often featured guerrilla tactics and ferocious political manoeuvering so they have remained uncelebrated in myth and legend.
The "moat" was the railway cutting. Then a second line of defence was excavated when CRI demolished the pretty flower garden planted by Karen and other residents, leaving a gaping wound of bare sandstone. After the 1987 stock market crash, CRI went bankrupt but their legacy of a hole in the ground remained for 15 years.
Two skeletons of dead trees atop a mound stood like an accusing two fingered salute pointing skyward in defiance.
The hole filled with water, becoming a moat to the Ways Terrace “castle” & attracted ducks & pelicans.
Plein air oil painting nocturne of Ways Terrace in Pyrmont by artist Jane Bennett
P86 Night,Ways Terrace   1994 
oil on canvas  91 x 61 cm
Ways Terrace was designed by notable architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson in association with architect Joseph Fowell and submitted for the Sydney City Council's Housing Project Competition in 1923, which it won. 
The land had become available after the completion of the construction of the Jones Bay finger wharves and their associated waterfront roadway, Jones Bay Road. The housing formerly on the land in the vicinity had been resumed by the government for wharf purposes and demolished except for a few individual buildings. Ways Terrace marked when the original working class housing was displaced by industrial and commercial development, followed by a concerted government endeavour to resettle residents in better quality accommodation.
It dramatically contrasts how the government attitude to low cost housing in Sydney has changed from the early twentieth century to a century later.
Plein air oil painting of Ways Terrace in Pyrmont by artist Jane Bennett
P98 Ways Terrace 1994 oil on board 41 x 122cm
Ways Terrace is a four storey rendered brick apartment block, located prominently on the skyline, in a series of five cubic blocks which step down the hillside. 
Leslie Wilkinson was a leading exponent of inter-war Mediterranean design, & this building is a key element of the Pyrmont cityscape. 
I always tried to pin down what it reminded me of. Finally when I visited Florence, I realized how similar in style it was to the structures built on the bridge over the Arno.
The Florentine character of Ways Terrace is established by the protruding balconies in the form of loggias & the trellised uppermost level of balconies. Plain rendered surfaces cast strong shadows. Windows are rectangular and multiple paned. Round arched openings define the entrance doors & there is a dramatic arched bridge over a laneway to the rear (the Ways Terrace street). The building has shallow pitched, terracotta tiled gable roofs with wide eaves. 

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Friday 3 July 2020

The empty mask- Edwin Davey and Sons Flour Mill, Pyrmont

Built in 1896, the Edwin Davey and Sons Flour Mill was the last and one of the longest operating flour mills operating in inner Sydney.
The main building was a 4 storey brick flour mill in the utilitarian Federation Free Classical architectural style, with rectangular window openings and a corrugated iron roof behind a plain parapet.
The north facade had a large triangular pediment bearing the business name "Edwin Davey and Sons". On the western side, an extension built out to the cliff line. There was a rail siding from the old Metropolitan Goods Line on the northern side, below the escarpment with some remaining wheat elevation gear and corrugated iron clad extensions at the back of the mill.
By the time of these paintings from the early 2000s, the interior had long been gutted of any machinery and there are obvious horizontal bands of bracing girdling the exterior facade and keeping its last few bricks from falling onto the cars below.
Plein air oil painting of the exterior facade of the ruin of the Edwin Davey and Sons Flour Mill, Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P263A 'Edwin Davey Flour Mill'
2012 oil on board 26 x 38cm
Available

Until the 1860s the Ultimo end of the Pyrmont peninsula was still an undeveloped grazing property owned by Surgeon John Harris and his heirs.
In 1895, 10 lots of Block 42 of the Harris Estate was bought by Freeman and Sons, producers of a large range of household goods, who built a flour mill on the site.
In 1900 Edwin Davey, who already owned mills in South Australia, bought the Ultimo Roller Mills, to produce flour for export, as freight costs from Sydney were better than in Adelaide.
Plein air oil painting of the demolition of the Fielder Gillespie Flour Mills, Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P100 Demolition of the Fielder Gillespie Flour Mills 2
1992 oil on paper 75 x 100cm
Available

The Ultimo Mill went into production in 1901 under the name Chanticleer Flour and operated until 1992, when it became part of Weston Milling Ltd. As the Ultimo mill was small and old fashioned, it was closed, gutted and sold for development.
By coincidence, about the same time, over the opposite side of Pyrmont Peninsula, Fielder Gillespie Flour Mills, next to the Pyrmont Power Station, was also being demolished. After a few weeks the Fielder Gillespie site was completely cleared and remained empty space until eventual redevelopment as a Woolworths and various other shops and offices. By contrast, the ghostly skeleton of the Edwin Davey and Sons building haunted the western edge of Pyrmont for a generation.

Plein air oil painting of the interior of the ruin of the Edwin Davey and Sons Flour Mill, Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P263 'Edwin Davey Flour Mill'
2012 oil on paper 13 x 23cm
Available

By 2001 the building had been reduced to a wafer thin shell of bricks propped up in front of a weedy wasteland.
My painting above shows the interior of the facade, criss-crossed with bracing and scribbled over with cryptic graffiti.
The empty mask formerly known as the Edwin Davey and Sons flour mill was for almost 30 years a landmark for anyone driving to or from Pyrmont over the Anzac Bridge.It was demolished and replaced by an apartment block, with a small shed cantilevered on the western facade.
It lights up at night in a token gesture to the former building's existence.

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Friday 26 June 2020

Royal Edward Victualling Yards (REVY), Darling Island, Pyrmont

Today's painting on the deck shows a small panorama of Sydney Harbour with a cargo ship berthed at the East Darling Harbour Wharves in the background. The strange looking building in the centre surrounded by piles of timber is the REVY C building on Darling Island. I painted it in the early 1990s from Ways Terrace.
Plein air oil painting of East Darling Harbour Wharves, Sydney Harbour and REVY, Darling Island in Pyrmont  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett







 
 
 
P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'
1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
On Darling Island, nothing is now left of the timber and shipbuilding yards. Today the water’s edge bristles with new apartment blocks gazing over sheltered waters. Yet beneath the silvery surface lies a hidden history.
The Royal Edward Victualling Yard, ( REVY A,B & C), was built between 1890 and 1911, by the revered Government architect Walter Liberty Vernon in the Federation Free style.
They were some of the last working buildings on the Pyrmont waterfront and had rivettingly odd architecture. Revy A and B  consisted of a 5 storey and a 6 storey pair of large red brick warehouses set at right angles to each other and linked by a square central  water reservoir tower. They were built in a flamboyant neo-Gothic style which reminded me irresistibly of the Bargello in Florence.
Plein air oil painting of East Darling Harbour Wharves, Sydney Harbour and REVY, Darling Island in Pyrmont  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'
1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Revy C is a narrow, skinny, rather ungainly eight-storey, red brick Federation Warehouse, and still the tallest structure on Darling Island.  It had a rusticated ashlar bluestone ground floor, and a riveted truss jib crane facing Jones Bay Wharf. Its 4 large lift towers on the roof always reminded me of the crenellations on top of medieval castles.
Early fire fighting relied on steam pumped water pressure which could only reach up to a maximum of 2 storeys. So the set of external steel fire stairs at either end were a very practical solution to this problem, even though I used to curse them for being a perspective nightmare to paint.
Plein air oil painting of East Darling Harbour Wharves, Sydney Harbour and REVY, Darling Island in Pyrmont  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett


 







 
P12B REVY 3 from Jones Bay Wharf with 'Nederburg'
1990 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm
SOLD
Enquiries about other paintings of Darling Island

Revy's original purpose became obsolete due to the increasing size of cargo ships and the introduction of container shipping.
The painting above shows the 'Nederburg' one of the last cargo ships docking at the Pier 19/20/21 (now known as Jones Bay Wharf) opposite Revy C.
During the 1980s REVY C was remodelled for the Defence Science and Technology Organization.
Plein air oil painting of East Darling Harbour Wharves, Sydney Harbour and REVY, Darling Island in Pyrmont  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett














P12 REVY from Jones Bay Road
1990 oil on paper 25.5 x 31 cm

Available for sale
This small oil study shows the timber yard on the other side to the previous painting.
In 1994, REVY A and B were renovated for Naval Support Command , and I was commissioned to paint 3 huge paintings for their foyer.
They could be seen from Jones Bay Road until 2005 when Channel 7 moved in. Now these paintings are on Spectacle Island, where unfortunately they can't be seen by the public.
REVY C was vacant from 2005 until its recent redevelopment for apartments.
 
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Sunday 8 April 2018

Terminus Redux

I have mixed feelings about the renovation of the Terminus.
Although it's been restored,not demolished or replaced by apartment blocks as so often happens, it has been stripped of its poetry.
Plein air ink and charcoal painting of the renovation and redevelopment of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P286A 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 ink, charcoal on paper 131 x 106cm
Enquiries :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I painted a large mixed media work on paper, as well as an even larger oil on canvas, just before the iconic vines were removed. The awning had been stripped back to a fragile skeleton, but the bricks had yet to be sand-blasted.
However well a place is renovated, inevitably there must be compromises between keeping the original character and making it a viable business.
No expense was spared on the fitout.The designers and architects have done their best to restore the old pub building while retaining quite a lot of the original pub from tiles to timber. The pressed metal ceiling upstairs is a sympathetic replacement not the original, which was too badly damaged.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation and redevelopment of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P286 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

I miss the vine-covered facade. It had probably been planted early in the 20th century by a CSR employee, as the same species of Virginia creeper covered the manager's residence and the courtyard of the 'Rum Store'.
Recently I attended the launch of Shirley Fitzgerald's wonderful book on the history of the Terminus. I was honoured that Shirley had asked me to contribute a photo of one of my paintings of the Terminus facing opposite its longtime companion and rival, the Pyrmont Point Hotel (aka the Royal Pacific).
Plein air oil painting of the Point Hotel and the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P252 'The Terminus and the Point'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
When I went upstairs, I almost walked into one of the walls, not from one too many cocktails, but because I'd expected the hall that once led through to the building next door. I believe this passageway had to be closed off due to updated fire regulations.
A typical pub menu, priced rather steeply, cashes in on the hipster ambience from the 32 years that the Terminus spent as an icon of urban decay.
As a contrast, when I'd visited the Terminus prior to its closure in the early 1980s, they were giving out free food. Possibly this had contributed to its original decline and fall.
The new owners aren't making that mistake, quite the opposite.
Ironically despite having kept the ghost sign outside, no Resch's is on tap.
For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

Saturday 22 April 2017

City larrikins, past and present


I took advantage an almost deserted CBD during a public holiday, to record some of the buildings in Castlereagh St that will soon be demolished to make way for new metro stations around Martin Place.
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm
 
I took a panoramic canvas to try to squeeze in as much of the streetscape as possible.
On this canvas I've managed to get the lovely Art Deco building on the north corner of Hunter and Castlereagh St, 55 Hunter St, 10 - 12 Castlereagh st and a doorway of the lovely old Commonwealth Bank building that now houses Macquarie Bank.
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm
 
Ironically there is a keystone in the Macquarie Bank building that was placed there by the controversial NSW premier Jack Lang, who once attempted to nationalize the banks and cancel Australia's war debts to the UK. I can't help wondering what Jack Lang would have thought of Macquarie Bank!
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm
Several skateboarders and parkour experts can just be seen in the distance, grouped on the stairs of the soon to be demolished 17 storey building at 55 Hunter street.
Unfortunately I had to break the news to them that their favourite ramps and railings at 55 Hunter St where they practise their jumps will soon be demolished. They will make the most of their unofficial skate park until it is knocked down next month, and entertained me with over 2 hours of death defying jumps, twists and somersaults.
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm

There seems to be something about this street corner that attracts larrikins, past and present.
A trio of slightly less acrobatic larrikins of the past, also used this unassuming corner of the CBD to rattle the cage of conservative society over 50 years ago.
A famous copper sculpture by Tom Bass, bites into the Hunter street facade of this office block. It had been commissioned by P&O as a wall fountain  in 1961, and was intended to be seen as a purely abstract design. 
However, when this work was unveiled, its indirect resemblance to a Parisian pissoir and its position opposite the French Airline Office, led to a notorious lampoon in the 6th edition of Oz magazine. The editors of Oz magazine, Richard Neville, Richard Walsh and Martin Sharp, were charged, tried and sentenced to jail with hard labour for "obscenity and encouraging public urination", although the defendants subsequently appealed against the sentences, which were revoked.
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm

Tom Bass wasn't offended by the Oz magazine send up of his sculpture, and actually appeared in the trial for the defendants.
plein air oil Painting  of Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'Panorama of Castlereagh st, from Hunter st to Martin Place' 2017 oil on canvas 31 x 103cm
 
Through the Chifley arcade are a couple of other buildings due for demolition, 5-7 Elizabeth street. 7 Elizabeth street is an elegant art-deco apartment block, recently vacated by its reluctant ex-residents.

Tuesday 28 March 2017

This is how the light gets in

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

“Anthem,” by Leonard Cohen from his 1992 album The Future.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a small square canvas 46 x 46cm
of two windows and a door in the
Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops
Enquiries
These are healing words to someone who often struggles under the unbearable weight of perfectionism. It is more than a confrontation with the strange beauty of broken things.
It is a powerful message of hope in dark times.There is a crack in everything whether a physical object such as a piece of machinery, or even a state of mind.
But that’s where the light gets in, and that’s where we can find the transcendence we need to interpret painful events in a wider context.
Literally, nothing, and nobody is perfect.That should not be a source of despair or frustration.
Imperfection is a sign of life.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a small square canvas 46 x 46cm
of two windows and a door in the
Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops
Enquiries
If the purpose of a window is to be able to let an observer see outside, or to illuminate the interior, the windows of the Large Erecting Shop of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops fail spectacularly.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'2 windows and a door in the Large Erecting Shop,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops'
2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm
Enquiries
However, the evocative effects created by sunlight filtering through the grid of rusty bars rival the stained glass of Chartres Cathedral.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'2 windows and a door in the Large Erecting Shop,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops'
2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm
Enquiries
Every pane is a unique mix of translucency and texture.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas
of the strange green window.
" 2 windows and a door, Large Erecting Shop,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops' 2017
oil on canvas 46 x 46cm 
Enquiries
Their ethereal opalescent quality is not caused by expensive designer frosting, but by more than a century's buildup of deposits of dirt, pigeon droppings, steam and diesel fumes.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas
of the strange green window.
Enquiries
And there are cracks galore.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas
of the strange green window.
Enquiries
Other imperfections abound.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas
of the strange green window.
'2 windows and a door in the
Large Erecting Shop,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops'
2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm"
Enquiries
Ghost signs warning of the dangers of long lost machinery alternate with boarded over panes in abstract patterns that would make Mondriaan's head spin.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas of the strange green window.
Enquiries
Doors are abruptly cut into them, apparently at random.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas of the strange green window.
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com
An inexplicably green pane of glass casts an eerie phosphorescent glow.
Plein air oil painting of windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"Window with pane of green glass"
2017 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm
Enquiries
When the Large Erecting Shop is redeveloped, the windows will be replaced with uncracked clear panes to match the rest of the gentrified ATP.
No rogue panes of eldritch green glass will startle the viewer with their otherworldly light. They will be made safe, watertight, functional, identical and boring.
The chaotic jumble of heritage machinery in the Large Erecting Shop will be culled and tamed. There will be nothing accidental, mysterious or inexplicable.
There will soon be no cracks left to let the light in.
More paintings of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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The fire within

Monday 29 August 2016

"The Mother Art is Architecture"

"The Mother Art is Architecture" is part of a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The full quotation is  : "The Mother Art is Architecture. Without an Architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization".
I am one of 6 artists, John Waters, Isabelle Devos, Jane Bennett, Stephen Nova, Chris Brown, and Hadyn Wilson currently exhibiting in the group show "The Mother Art is Architecture" at FrancesKeevil Gallery, 28-34 Cross Street Double Bay. Architecture is  the theme; yet each artist takes it in quite different directions.
Almost everything that I have ever painted has either been demolished or changed beyond all recognition: the pubs have been gentrified, working class terraces are now apartment blocks and Sydney is no longer a Working Harbour.
I have spent most of my career painting the loss of Sydney's "soul of civilization".
Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklloyd127711.html
Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklloyd127711.html
I was "Artist in Residence" at the "Hungry Mile", East Darling Harbour Wharves during its last years as a working port, courtesy of Patrick Stevedores and Sydney Ports Corporation. When I knew that port operations were ending, I used the wharf itself as a studio and gained unprecedented access to every aspect of the activities there. I painted on the wharves, from the bridge of the ships (courtesy of the ship’s captains) and wonderful bird’s eye views from the top of Harbour Control Tower. After the last ship had sailed, I continued my epic series of paintings of Barangaroo, the largest and most controversial Sydney Harbour construction project in living memory.
Plein air oil painting of the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
MW62 Harbour Tower from Moore's Wharf '
2015 oil on canvas 51 x 41cm


I 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, and afterwards had access to create paintings of various stages of the construction of Barangaroo. I spent many  New Year’s Eves on the top floor, painting 360 degrees of the fireworks exploding underneath against the unforgettable harbour view.
Two major works on paper which I painted from the top of the Harbour Control Tower a couple of years apart, will be featured in this exhibition.
These two large mixed media drawings show the maximum possible contrast between old and new; between heritage and development; between tradition and progress.
One shows views over Barangaroo and the waterfront. The other looks out over Millers Point towards the bridge. A nod to the past - and a look to the future.
The 2 works overlap slightly,  sharing the sweeping curve of the workers terraces of High Street as well as the quirky asymmetry of the old Palisade Hotel in common. They are on the far left hand side of the earlier work, and on the far right hand side of the later work.
ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point from the Harbour Control Tower  by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
HCT34  'Millers Point and Barangaroo
 from the top of Harbour Tower' 2010
ink acrylic gouache on paper 102 x 125cm
Enquiries
 
 






















By the time of painting the later work, the Palisade had nearly completed its transformation from a down at heel wharfies’ dive into a luxurious upmarket watering hole for the new residents of Barangaroo and Walsh Bay Wharves.
The earliest version of the Palisade was built in the late 1800s, but the Sydney Harbour Trust commissioned Henry Deane Walsh to build a hotel on top of the pub, which was completed in 1915. The Palisade Hotel was literally a landmark as it was the highest building in Sydney at the time. Many diggers sank their last beer at the hotel before they boarded ships bound for the First and Second World War. It was also used as a lodge for workers constructing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Over the years, the hotel has been frequented by many “colourful characters”. There's almost too much history in the walls.
Atop Millers Point, high above the harbour, the old Palisade Hotel sat forlorn for 7 years from the end of World Youth Day in 2008 until its reopening in August 2015, just in time for its centenary.  It had been closed in 2008 for an renovation by the then owner and sold at auction in March 2015 for about $20 million. Now the new owners have given it a $5 million renovation and reopened the ground-floor public bar.
This large mixed media drawing shows the view looking south from the Harbour Tower. The wharf buildings have just been cleared, revealing a bare expanse of concrete with a few cryptic markings which could either be for vehicles or possibly guidelines for future construction. The white marquee in the centre right of the wharf is the temporary cruise ship terminal. Soon afterwards, it was removed when the new cruise ship terminal at White Bay was opened.
 A faint shadow of the Harbour Tower is cast over a section of the wharf, about to be excavated for the Barangaroo Headland Park, which opened a year ago in August 2015.
The left hand side shows the early 20th century Federation heritage architecture of Millers Point, still at this stage inhabited by the descendants of 5 generations of waterside workers. The staggered walls and gables that serrate the roofline of High Street are groupings of 4 individual flats, rather than individual houses.
Upper flats were divided from lower flats by an ingenious use of panels, to lessen noise and the risk of the spread of fire. Each flat had its own ventilated laundry, bathroom and scullery at the rear to maintain hygienic living conditions.
The lower flats had a courtyard to dry clothes and access to a rear lane for rubbish collection. The upper flats had rooftop drying platforms made of solid hardwood beams, packed tightly side by side and bonded by steel rods. The washing was launched into the air by nifty pulley mechanisms. Brick chutes and concrete tubes allowed rubbish to be dropped to the lane below.   
These humble dwellings were actually cutting edge design solutions to the problems of medium density urban living. They pioneered some of the earliest use of now ubiquitous technology in Sydney housing and incorporate some of the aesthetics and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed buildings should be made from the land and benefit the environment.
Another famous quote by Frank Lloyd Wright can be used to contrast the modest utility of the workers flats with the pomposity of recent development at Barangaroo : "A building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped to harmonize with its surroundings if Nature is manifest there.”
 
ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014
 ink acrylic  gouache on paper
106 x 136cm
Enquiries
























This mixed media drawing was one of the last I was able to paint from the top of the Harbour Tower.
It's the quintessential Sydney Harbour view, with a breathtaking panorama of Walsh Bay Wharves and Millers Point below my feet, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.
 I have painted every single building in this canvas from ground level, often from several angles, and met most of the residents and workers, old and new.

Detail of ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Detail of protest banners in High Street -

HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014

ink , gouache on paper 106 x 136cm

Enquiries





 


















The heritage architecture of Millers Point is festooned with a few defiant banners protesting against the inevitable eviction of the residents of High Street, Windmill Street, Lower Fort Street and Dalgety Terrace.
Reg Mombassa designed a T-shirt with the logo of a skull smoking a cigar and wearing a top hat, symbolizing the real estate agents and developers now infesting the once sleepy backwater.
A few hang from the rooftop drying platforms in Dalgety Terrace.

ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Close up detail of
protest T Shirts in Dalgety Terrace
HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014 
ink acrylic  gouache on paper 106 x 136cm

 

At the time of painting, the Palisade Hotel was soon to be re- opened after 7 years of emptiness. In contrast, the city and Walsh Bay Wharves remain shrouded in darkness. 
In the background, cranes pick at the skeleton of the half demolished Hammerhead Crane on Garden Island. 
Earlier that year I had braved the daunting bureaucracy of the Navy to become the ‘Artist in Residence’ on Garden Island for several months so that I was able to paint the last days of this historic naval relic before it was demolished.
While painting this work, I realized the Harbour Control Tower was under threat of demolition, despite being an iconic landmark. 
The demolition process began in March 2016 and will continue until the end of the year.
Another quote from Frank Lloyd Wright :
“Architecture is life, or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.”