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 nocturne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nocturne. 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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Tuesday 4 August 2020

Painting Sydney Harbour in the footsteps of Turner

All this winter I've felt something's been lacking.
Vivid.
Due to Covid-19 it couldn't be held this year, and for all I know New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrations may not be held in the foreseeable future either.
I've often mocked Sydney for valuing style over substance, but I have to confess that I like a mindlessly pretty display of fairy lights against a harbour view as much as anyone.
So for anyone getting withdrawal symptoms, here's one on the easel of my deck gallery.
Oil painting - nocturne of Sydney Harbour with tall ship, fireworks and Sydney Harbour Bridge painted by industrial and marine artist Jane Bennett
U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale

This canvas of the burning ship against a backdrop of fireworks illuminating the Sydney Harbour Bridge was painted in the studio from a series of quick gouache studies that I did on New Year's Eve 2003, well over a decade before Vivid was ever thought of. I regard this as a sort of 'proto-Vivid'.
It added a new dimension to the usual fireworks and was a startling sight if you weren't aware that it was in fact a special effect, and not a tragic fire on board the 'James Craig'.
The first time I saw it, like hundreds, possibly thousands of others, I rang 000 in a panic to report it. You could almost hear the person from Emergency Services rolling their eyes, as they assured me that it was just a special effect, that , no, the James Craig was just fine, and thanked me for my misplaced concern.
The Fireship apparently commemorated an early 19th century convict ship that had caught fire, and in the weeks after, during the Sydney Festival, there was a 'son et lumiere' show every night for a couple of weeks. I forget the details and the story, and frankly I think everyone else did as well. The images of the fire reflected in the water were all the spectators really were interested in, and the story seemed just a flimsy excuse.
As I painted some quick sketches in gouache and watercolour, I was glad that i'd spent so much of my 1996 Marten Bequest Traveling Art Scholarship holed up in the Print and Drawing Room of the Clore Gallery (the section of the Tate Gallery devoted to the work of Turner, obsessively painting studies of the many fabulous Turner watercolours in their collection. The Petworth series and the burning of the Houses of Parliament were my favourites. I became so good at painting them that the staff became slightly alarmed, and demanded that I sign my studies on the back so that I wouldn't be able to do a bit of a 'switcheroo' while their backs were turned! I took this as a sort of a backhanded compliment, but my goal wasn't to just mindlessly copy, but to try to conquer the mystery of painting sea,sky, storm, night and fire. How to make the intangible, tangible.
When I returned from my Traveling Art Scholarship, I actually exhibited some of these in a couple of exhibitions "The Grand Tour" and "In the Footsteps of the Masters" that acted like a sort of debriefing - a transition phase from the scholarship to the routine of regular commercial exhibitions.
I'd seen a lot of amazing art, and learnt a lot, but how was I going to incorporate this into what I would paint on my return?
Oil painting - nocturne of Sydney Harbour with tall ship, fireworks and Sydney Harbour Bridge painted by industrial and marine artist Jane Bennett
U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale

Painting the Fireship was a chance to give a virtuoso display of layers of translucent glazes of breathtakingly expensive and exotic colours such as Aureolin, Rose Madder and Alizarin Crimson. These aren't the sort of colours that usually get a work out during plein air painting.
However, as I started to paint lost trades and dying industries, I would get more and more frequent opportunities to use them. Subjects like the Oxycutter at William Wallbank and Sons, or the Blacksmiths at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops provided further connections to the lost world of the Early Industrial Revolution that Turner and his predecessors de Loutherbourg and Joseph Wright of Derby immortalized. The major difference is that these artists were painting the founding of this era - I'm painting its demise.

Related Posts


Vivid

Meltdown, Oxycutting at William Wallbank and Sons

Irons in the fire

Saturday 20 June 2020

In the shadow of the Bridge -Night Observatory Hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a nocturne painted from Observatory Hill.
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available
I've often painted the Rocks and Millers Point from this vantage point.
When I used to teach art classes, I'd give everyone a map of the best spots to sit so they could avoid having to include the Blues Point Tower!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available

































This view looks straight down Lower Fort Street where I have also frequently painted the heritage terraces, the Garrison church, the Harbourview and 'Hero of Waterloo' hotels.
Some of this collection are on my Miller's Point page in this blog.
It's a postcard perfect Sydney Harbour scene during the day. but at night the shadows make it evocative and mysterious.
The tales from the rowdy and sometimes sinister era of the Rocks 'Push' don't seem to be quite as distant at night!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm

Related Posts

Vivid

No Place like home

Tie a yellow Ribbon

Thursday 2 May 2019

Selfie at South Eveleigh (Watching the forge fires fade)

I don't usually paint self portraits, but this is the exception.
I've been asked to exhibit in "Selfie", an exhibition of self portraits by artists who don't normally specialize in portraiture.
I have painted myself in front of the largest surviving forge remaining in Australia, the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop
"Selfie" is on display from 11th - 26th May at 1047 Gallery, 1047 Botany Road Mascot.
Opening Saturday 11th may 2-5pm, closing drinks 26th May 2-4pm.
 Open Saturday & Sunday 11 am - 4pm
0401 037 359     ten-forty-seven@mail.com

Invitation to "Selfie" Exhibition at 1047 Gallery, 1047 Botany Road Mascot
Invitation to "Selfie" Exhibition at 1047 Gallery
















 

self portrait with blacksmith forging at Eveleigh Works, South Eveleigh by industrial Heritage artist Jane Bennett
 E158 'Watching the forge fires fade'
 2019 acrylic on canvas 31 x 61cm
 










Available for sale
From 1886 until the 1980s, the Blacksmith’s Workshop produced equipment and parts for manufacturing and maintaining steam locomotives.
The modern blacksmiths of Eveleigh Works still use traditional machinery in homage to this bygone era of steam trains and handmade tools.
However, despite their much-loved status as icons of industrial heritage, the blacksmiths face an uncertain fate as a Woolworths will be built next door. 
In the maelstrom of inner city gentrification, blacksmiths are anachronisms; living fossils from the 19th century.
Much like plein air painters, I suppose.
The deep shadows and dramatic lighting of the forge evoke the evocative, melancholy poetry of nocturnal scenes painted by my heroes Caravaggio, Joseph Wright of Derby and Georges de la Tour. Their nocturnes are ‘memento mori’ paintings contemplating  transience and mortality. The flickering flame will soon be extinguished. 
My canvas is cloaked in darkness, yet a flash of intense illumination throws eerie green highlights across my face. Behind me the blacksmith darts gracefully backwards and forwards in his dangerous dance with fire.
My face looms in the foreground towards the viewer, lost in thought. My gaze doesn’t meet the viewer directly, but peers intently at something just out of sight. Am I looking back in nostalgia to the past, or staring warily at an unknown future?

Thursday 24 August 2017

Nocturne - painting Locomotive 3642 steaming

plein air nocturne oil painting of steam locomotive 3642 steaming outside the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
3642 steaming at night from the Large
 2017 oil on canvas tondo 31 x 31cm


'3642 steaming at night from the
 Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops'
 2017 oil on canvas 15 x 31cm


'Carriage and windows, night,
Large Erecting Shop'

2017 oil on canvas 25 x 20cm
Available

On Thursday 20th July the heritage steam locomotive 3642 made a brief nocturnal visit to the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops.
Despite the biting cold and sharp gusts of wind, I managed to paint 2 small oil studies of 3642 steaming outside the shed at night, as well as an interior of the Large Erecting Shop, before my fingers finally became too numb to hold a brush.
plein air nocturne oil painting of steam locomotive 3642 steaming outside the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'3642 steaming at night from the Large Erecting Shop,
Eveleigh Railway Workshops'
2017 oil on canvas 15 x 31cm

Available 
3642 was making this brief pit-stop at Eveleigh, before a historic journey to celebrate 150 years since the first regular passenger train travelled from Penrith to Weatherboard (known today as Wentworth Falls).
plein air nocturne oil painting of steam locomotive 3642 steaming outside the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
















plein air nocturne oil painting of steam locomotive 3642 steaming outside the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'3642 steaming at night from the Large'
2017 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm



















3642 was built for the New South Wales Government Railways in 1926 by Clyde Engineering and hauled passenger trains throughout NSW.
Originally painted black, it was painted green in the mid-1930s, but repainted black at the start of World War II.
It was withdrawn from operational service in September 1969, and moved to the NSW Rail Transport Museum until cracking was discovered in its firebox in 1973.
3642 was sent to Goulburn Roundhouse in 1979 to be overhauled and returned to service in November 1981.
In December 1994, 3642 was again withdrawn from service when the rear driving axle failed an ultrasonic test, and became a static exhibit at Thirlmere until restoration work began in 2006.
It returned to service in March 2008 and by the end of the year, the engine was yet again repainted green.

In July 2011, it was taken out of service for an overhaul before returning to service in April 2012.
plein air nocturne oil painting of steam locomotive 3642 steaming outside the Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'3642 steaming at night from the Large'
2017 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available

My first small oil study was a straightforward rendering of the locomotive, but I had also brought a small tondo (circular canvas) to experiment with a different sort of composition.
I used the huge and very sturdy doors of the shed to frame the steaming locomotive, and the tracks snake their way directly towards the viewer.
The night lights turned the steam into puffs of iridescent blue, mauve and rose. 
More paintings of Eveleigh Railway Workshops at my Eveleigh page in this blog