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 excavation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excavation. Show all posts

Sunday 27 August 2017

Let there be rock

Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available

Not far south of the Terminus Hotel, another formerly ignored and derelict site is being gentrified.
There was a 'no man's land' between Harris and Mount streets which was an overgrown wasteland, with the southern end used as a carpark for the past 3 decades.
Plein air oil painting painted from the roof of the Pyrmont Power Station showing Harris Street, the CSR Distillery, by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P241B 'Panorama from the roof of Pyrmont Power Station
from Harris St, Mount St to the CSR Distillery'
1991 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available
This is a small canvas I painted from the roof of the Chem-Lab of the Pyrmont Power Station in 1991, looking west towards the ethanol tanks of the CSR Distillery. In the centre is the handsome vine-covered Federation building that was once the house of the CSR Manager. The carpark can be seen to the right of the Manager's house.
Clumps of pampas grass used to poke through the badly laid bitumen, which was covered with weeds and strewn with discarded bongs.
This wasteland occasionally featured as a backdrop for early 1980s rock video clips.
Only a brick pier wall facing Mount st and a tumbledown graffitied sandstone block wall remained above ground level as relics of the row of terraces once occupying that site. The terraces had been pulled down long before I started to paint in Pyrmont.
Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
The carpark has now been excavated, revealing the golden sandstone beneath. This is one of the few remaining still undeveloped sites in Pyrmont, and I took the rare opportunity to paint the honey coloured tones of the yellowblock sandstone before it is removed and construction starts.
It isn't far from the McCaffery's stables, which had been built over the legendary 'Paradise Quarry', where the best quality sandstone in Sydney had been extracted.
Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
Under the bitumen, an archaeologist's dig had revealed a cobbled sandstone path, a neatly finished sandstone cesspit, carved sandstone steps and mysterious carvings. One of the carved images resembled a child-like version of a church or chapel. Paul Gye aka 'Pyrmonstrosity Pyrmontosis', who has dedicated many hours into painstakingly and expertly researching Pyrmont's hidden history, has concluded that these carvings might have dated from as early as 1840 and could refer to Dr JD Lang’s Presbyterian ‘Long Lost Chapel of Pyrmont’. The full album of photos of 'Pyrmonstrosity Pyrmontosis' site visit with photos of the carvings can be seen at Facebook album : Archaeological Site Visit - Mount & Harris Streets - 10 May 2017
The chapel was later relocated to Ultimo, and its current location is the 'Mustard Seed' ministry in Bulwara Street (ironically opposite the Lord Wolseley Hotel).
Unfortunately despite their unique heritage value, the carvings have by now been completely destroyed by the excavation.

Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
During my site visit, I tried to persuade the archaeologists to let me paint on site before the demolition started, but they gave me the brush off, no pun intended.
Frustratingly I had to peer through the hoardings and shadecloth.
Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
The 2,300sq metre site on the south-western side of the Terminus Hotel, will be soon transformed into a collection of 15 low-rise terrace houses, aka the 'New Life Pyrmont' project.
Plein air oil painting of the excavation between Harris and Mount street Pyrmont for the 'New Life' development  painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
My painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
I persuaded a kind passer-by to hold up my painting so I could take a good photo of it against the demolition.
The top half of the stairs once leading from Harris Street to the carpark have already been demolished, and the Harris Street frontage has been completely excavated and removed to allow trucks to enter and remove the sandstone.
I've heard that the terraces have been designed to incorporate some of the excavated sandstone from the site.

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