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 charcoal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charcoal. Show all posts

Monday 14 April 2014

Under the Hammer

Before the Navy finally booted me off Garden Island, I made sure that I tackled some large scale drawings
Since 2007, due to real or perceived safety issues, temporary catch platforms have been suspended from the long arm and short arm jibs. They spoil the line, but apparently provide access to allow condition inspections to be performed safely.
At first glance, it looks as though the Hammerhead Crane has 5 legs.
However, one of these "legs" is a lift to give access from the wharf to the slew ring level (seen in the centre at the top of my drawing). As the crane is 61m high, this wasn't an idle luxury.
Unfortunately this lift has been out of operation since 1998.
While drawing this, I met probably the last person to have ever used the lift. He was escorting a group of photographers to the top, and had pressed the lift button when he heard a muffled explosion, and then found his hands were black with graphite.
He said that he was lucky and got off lightly. I think he was right.

plein air charcoal and ink drawng of the Hammerhead Crane, Garden Island by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'Under the Hammerhead Crane' 2014
ink, pastel, charcoal,graphite on paper 140 x 110cm
WINNER : 2014 DRAWING PRIZE ROYAL EASTER SHOW
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My hands were also black with graphite after creating this enormous drawing.
I stood directly underneath and looked up into the top of the soaring structure.
By looking up I sought to capture the Burke and Longinus concept of the "sublime", with its overtones of awe, terror and vertigo, rather than the picturesque aspect of the typical "hammerhead" profile, a view familiar from Mrs Macquarie's Chair opposite.
The girders were silhouetted against the open sky; the safety nets resembling fan vaulting in a ruined Gothic abbey.
While creating this enormous drawing, I also remembered Piranesi's devastating images of Roman ruins, dangerously broken and overgrown amid the wreckage of a dead civilization.
 GIHC7 'Under the Hammerhead Crane'
2014 ink pastel charcoal on paper 76 x 56cm
























I am an artist and historian, born into a time and place where only sport and business are valued. Drawing on the ruins of the industrial past , walking under rusty girders in the shadow of toppled giants.
Every ruin is implicitly a reminder that all things are destined for oblivion.
The Hammerhead Crane was built to demonstrate industrial might and the march of progress.
Even as a victim of the slow death of de-industrialization, it retains a poignant grandeur.
This was exhibited in my solo show "Under the Hammer" at the Frances Keevil Gallery from November 18th - December 7th 2014.


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Wednesday 25 May 2011

Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 2

Flaws in the Glass
E84 Eveleigh Windows 2011 mixed media on paper 76x 56cm

Available for sale : $4,500

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I have painted in the Large Erecting Shop for many years now, and usually I have concentrated on the trains rather than the building itself, as the trains were there for only a short time. 
However the fabric of the building itself is to alter soon, so my focus has shifted.
I completed a lovely little oil on canvas of a nondescript corner of the building, but then I decided to concentrate on the play of light, as so little colour was visible. Then I thought, why not paint a series of works in black and white.
I was reminded of some of my favourite Lloyd Rees paintings, his series of the medieval stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral.
Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm
Tools of the trade. Large bottle of black acrylic paint and a small bottle of water spray.
I paint with black and white acrylic paint, alternating with black Indian ink to produce areas of thin wash or impasto.
Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm
Then alternately tilting the enormous work from side to side to get the effect of the cracks in the glass by spraying the ink with water until it freely drips, then quickly laying it on the floor when I have the effect I want. 
High risk technique - really working without a safety net.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Then I take soft white Schminke pastel - so soft that it crumbles into powder- and broadly sweep it down the ares of the most intense light. With the palm of my hand I briskly smear it across highlights on the brickwork, then partially rub it off ink lines where I want cracks in the shattered panes to appear. 
Also a high risk technique, and very messy.
Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm
This is next to the old signal box where I sometimes keep my easel. 
I have heard a rumour that they will paint the floors white!
I can't believe this!  They will still be using this area for trains - possibly even steam trains! There will be oil, diesel, soot all over the floor by the end of the first day! A white coloured floor will aid visibility only as long as it stays white, which probably won't be for long, whereas fixing the electricity and replacing some of the broken lights will go much further to reducing OH and S problems.
Well I had better make the most of working "wet in wet" with ink and pastel while I'm still able to put my painting on the floor before it all becomes too gentrified.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011 ink, pastel, acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm
Most people looking at these works thought at first glance that they were actual stained glass windows from  St Mary's cathedral. 
But they are just windows with a lot of stains on them. Stains made by decades of hard work, accident, even a little vandalism.
The light transforms them into visions worthy of Chartres or Sainte Chapelle.
My dealer, Frances Keevil, only half-jokingly suggested that I enter one of these works in the Blake Prize for Religious Art. 

E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011 ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Available for sale : $7,700

Enquiries
' Eveleigh Window 1' 2011 mixed media on paper 131x 115cm by Jane Bennett Artist
' Eveleigh Window 1' 2011 mixed media on paper 131x 115cm.
Available for sale : $11,000

Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The completed drawing.

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Friday 20 May 2011

Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 1

One door closes...
Early in 2012 renovations started on some parts of the interior and exterior of the Large Erecting Shop at Eveleigh. New wooden doors made to the original pattern and drawings replaced the corrugated iron doors on all 6 roads.
Wrought Artworks, the blacksmith's forge, in Bay 1/2 south of the ATP  had their massive wooden doors replaced.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.
I painted a series of paintings of the doors and windows of the Large Erecting Shop before their makeover.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm
I have mixed feelings - I loved the brooding atmosphere and quirky imperfections caused by decades of soot, industry and vandalism, yet I'm glad that at least a token gesture has been made to respecting and conserving the building's heritage.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.
Available
However, apart from fixing holes in the roof, the improvements seemed to be restricted to the purely cosmetic rather than structural - the power, lighting and water supply, which could well stand some serious improvements, didn't seem to be on the list.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm
The strange skeletal silhouettes against the windows are the relics of old train seats stacked madly against the grill!
Shapes would emerge and sink back into the gloom as railway workers opened and closed the doors.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.
Available 
In the darkness I could barely make out the forms of motley bits of decades of collected junk; a shelf of old batteries sitting on rotting pallets,a couple of seats, a carriage window with panes of smeared and broken glass. This is flanked by a nest of ladders -I thought at first there were snakes behind them, but instead there is a cluster of bits of pipe. Around the base of the ladder to the right lie a stack of old brakes, which at first sight resembled blocks of wood.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'
2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.
Available
But most of it is wonderfully incomprehensible and fabulously useless.
ink and gouache painting of the windows in the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop' 2011
ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.
Available
The finished painting in glorious monochrome.

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