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 streetscape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label streetscape. Show all posts

Tuesday 30 June 2020

The Milky bar kid - old milkbar 74 Harris Street

Today's painting on the easel of my deck gallery is a 2009 plein air oil painting of a derelict abandoned old shop in Pyrmont, fondly, but wrongly known as the "old bakery".
Plein air oil painting of the old milkbar/bakery corner of Harris and John Street Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P257A 'Old milkbar aka 'bakery'
corner of John and Harris St'
2009 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available


















As far as I can remember the actual bakery was a few doors down and the corner shop was a milkbar, but we're talking at least 3 decades ago.
My standout memory of it when it was in its last days of operation was how rubbish I was at playing their "Fussball" machine, which was lines of wooden footballers attached to a stick that you tried to manoeuver by a lever to kick the ball.
Not a single goal!
The legendary Terminus Hotel on the opposite side of Harris Street, and like its more famous counterpart, was part of the Wakil's real life Monopoly game. They had a landbanking empire of quirky, derelict buildings which were loathed by local residents as eyesores but cherished by artists like myself.
Aren't Artists a perverse bunch - we ignore all the shiny new developments and make straight for the 'shame of the neighbourhood' to immortalize it!
Plein air oil painting of the old milkbar/bakery corner of Harris and John Street Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P257A 'Old milkbar aka 'bakery'
corner of John and Harris St'
2009 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available



















The continuous row of 19th century 2 storey terrace houses between Nos 74 and 80 Harris Street are still part of the Wakil collection of formerly derelict buildings, which once included the iconic Terminus Hotel opposite.
The row of  terraces have rendered brick shopfronts and skillion roofed wings at the rear. They are plainly detailed, with only a string course to the facades as decoration, and a Victorian/Georgian flavour in their design. Door openings are rectangular, and window openings are also rectangular as well as slightly segmentally arched. They are without parapet or verandahs and feature corrugated iron gable roofs with low corniced or corbelled chimneys.

Plein air acrylic painting of the old milkbar/bakery corner of Harris and John Street Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P256A 'Old Milkbar (aka 'Bakery'),
corner of Harris and John St'
2009 acrylic on paper 21 x 28cm
Available

















No 74 is similar to the rest, but was a corner shop and is faceted with a corner entrance. It  was a milkbar for a long time, although often and wrongly referred to as the 'old bakery'.
Number 82 was the actual site of the "old bakery", although now the entire block seems to have adopted this name.

Plein air oil painting of the old milkbar/bakery corner of Harris and John Street Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P257 'Old bakery corner of John and Harris St'
2012 oil on board  35 x 28cm

Available





















For many years the corner and north facing doorways were boarded up and featured an endless layering of illegal posters promoting long forgotten bands.
 
Plein air acrylic painting of the old milkbar/bakery corner of Harris and John Street Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P256B 'Old Milkbar and 'Chicks on Harris''
2009 acrylic on paper 21 x 28cm

Available

















Until about 2014, No 82 still partly kept up the milk bar tradition,traded as a "charcoal chicken" outlet called "Chicks on Harris".
Bearing in mind the seedy reputations of previous establishments at the north end of Harris St, I'm not sure that the owners had really thought through the implications of their name!
Milk bars are now imbued with mythical qualities they never possessed in life. In decline and death, they’re trendy and retro.


P256 'Black Dog (old milkbar -
aka 'bakery' from John St)'
2009 oil on board 31 x 25cm
Available


No 74 has now been recently and very sympathetically redeveloped by the current occupants - appropriately, 'Belle Property' real estate agents. And now it really is a 'belle' property indeed.
It's been painted a tasteful off-white shade, and the former layers of peeling posters have been replaced by large picture windows.
I couldn't resist having a sneaky peek inside.
The interior still has the original wall material visible, and the beautiful old hardwood stairs have been polished, but otherwise in their original state. The architraves are dark walnut stained hardwood, but the rotting floors had collapsed long ago and had to be replaced with polished concrete.
The huge tree outside is a relic from when both sides of John Street were edged with a row of trees whose branches would meet in the middle of the street to form a cathedral-like canopy. Lush and cool in summer, but most beautiful in winter when the feeble rays of the sun would pierce through the tracery of bare branches.
A lovely tree, but its roots went straight for the plumbing, and the pavement outside is cracked and humped by the twisting roots underneath. I know that a few years ago, several people had considered this old shop on as a renovation project, but weren't quite crazy-brave enough to take it on.

For more information about Harris and John Street in Pyrmont, including the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels
see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts



Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present


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

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 30 August 2014

Stairway to Nowhere

No way in, & no way out. 
No way up & no way down. 
High above street level and clinging to the northern end of the sandstone escarpment fringing Hickson Road in Millers Point, is a stairway to nowhere.
The entrance and exit are totally bricked-up. 
Everyone has heard of 'ghost signs' - but these are 'ghost stairs'.
Where are these spooky steps meant to lead?
Plein air oil painting of 'Tomason' bricked up stairway in cliff Hickson Road, Millers Point painted by Jane Bennett
MP2 Hickson Road stairs to nowhere
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




 
2014 acrylic on canvas 31 x 26cm
It just sits there embedded in the sandstone.  
No-one can climb into the section in the centre, as the base is totally bricked-in.
Presumably it wasn't fully bricked up because of financial considerations, & the partial enclosure would serve to prevent even the most determined parkour enthusiast from climbing to the top
'Tomason' aka Thomasson or Hyperart Thomasson (Japanese: Tomason トマソン or Chōgeijutsu Tomason 超芸術トマソン) is a type of conceptual art named by the Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei , a member of a Japanese art & architecture collective formed in 1986 known as Rojo Kansatsu (Roadside Observation). It's a term for useless, abandoned leftovers, which have been inadvertently preserved & even maintained as unintentional art created by the city itself. They are strange & haunting vestiges of the incessant churn of building, destruction, and redevelopment that characterizes the city. The equivalent of a human appendix or the vestigial remnants of tiny non-functional limbs on a snake's skeleton. 
The inspiration for the term was Gary Thomasson, a baseball player signed with great fanfare & given a huge contract, but who put in a such a disappointing performance that his name became a byword for uselessness. His position on the team was a fitting analogy for "an object, part of a building, that was maintained in good condition, but with no purpose, to the point of becoming a work of art." A 'Stairway to nowhere' is a type of 'Tomason' also known as a "Pure Staircase"(Japanese: Muyō kaidan 無用階段 )
It makes a quirky counterpart to 2 fully functional steps at opposite ends of the wharf precinct - High Steps & Agar Steps. The High steps were cut into the cliff face at the southernmost end of High Street. Agar Steps is on the western side of Observatory Hill, connecting Kent Street and Upper Fort Street. They were designed as a continuation of Agar Street, (now High Street) named after Thomas Agars, a merchant and City councillor. Originally called the Flagstaff Steps, Agar Steps was built to provide access to the Model School &Sydney Observatory.
During the early 20th century, the streetscapes of Millers Point were in a state of turmoil subsequent to large scale resumption by the Government as part of its program to eradicate the Bubonic plague.
By the 1920s whole streets had disappeared, new cliff faces had been carved into the bedrock and hundreds of houses were demolished & replaced. Quarrying to sea level along Hickson Road resulted in the creation of a platform carved into the exposed sandstone, creating a new urban terrace, 'High Street' by the Sydney Harbour Trust. 
The stairs cling to the wall above Hickson Road, leading up towards High Street & the deck of one of the three bridges built across Hickson Road.
The three bridges which carry Argyle, Munn and Windmill Streets over Hickson Road are rare examples of Monier Arch bridges. They were constructed along with the cuttings and other civil works in the area between 1910 and 1914 as part of the redevelopment of Walsh Bay by the Sydney Harbour Trust.  For the time, they were controversial & cutting edge technology as they were some of the earliest bridges to be built in Sydney using a new material called ferro-concrete (now known as reinforced concrete). 
The stairway to nowhere is a relic left over from the construction of the Monier bridge over Argyle street.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away.
..
 
'Antigonish (I met a man who wasn't there)'
by Hughes Mearns
 
Except it was the stair that wasn't there.
In metaphysics, a paradoxical argument by Willard Van Orman Quine in his 1948 paper "On What There Is" used the phrase 'Plato's beard' as a term for the philosophy of understanding something based on what does not exist. 
'Plato's beard' may blunt 'Occam's Razor'.


Related Posts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday 2 December 2012

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

I've spent a couple of days last week painting some small canvases of Pyrmont workers' cottages from the Bond store over the road at 12 Pyrmont Street.
This pair of semi-detached 1860s workers cottages might have started life as identical twins, but have suffered radically different fates over the years.
Plein air painting of semi-detached workers cottages in Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting my painting 'A tale of two cottages'
2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings
They remind me of an old classic movie on daytime TV I watched many years ago. I can't remember its name, or much about the plot or who was in it. All I can recall is that it was about a pair of beautiful twin sisters - one was the epitome of niceness but the other one was evil and came to a sticky and well deserved end.
Plein air painting of semi-detached workers cottages in Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Plein air painting 'A tale of two cottages'
2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings
While the “good twin”, number 27 Pyrmont Street, has been lovingly renovated several times over the last 30 years, the “bad twin”, number 29 Pyrmont Street, is yet another property owned by the same couple who own Darling Island Bond and Free Store and the Terminus Hotel, and is in a similar state of neglect as the rest of their portfolio.
The “good twin” has an exquisitely applied paint job in the latest fashionable neutral shades. The “bad twin” once boasted a front wall and stoop of glorious Pyrmont yellowblock sandstone, but this had unfortunately been covered with a cheap and nasty coat of plaster and bright blue paint which has faded erratically.
Plein air painting of semi-detached workers cottages in Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'A tale of two cottages' 2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings
In the early 1980s, Number 27 was occupied by a couple of eccentric graphic designers. They started the ambitious but ill-fated "Pyrmont Passport" as a protest about the over-development of the Pyrmont Peninsula and the construction of the Casino. After they lost this fight, one of them moved to live in the Birdsville pub to get away from the madness of inner city politics
I haven't yet met the current occupants of Number 27, but the elegant brass plate next to the door is inscribed "Rhubarb" in a funky yet tasteful font. At the moment it seems that it is compulsory for anyone who lives or works in Pyrmont has to be an architect, a web designer or run a restaurant, preferably all three simultaneously. As "Rhubarb" is a type of vegetable, it would be far too literal a name for a restaurant, my money is on it being full of architects or web designers.
Last century, the residents of Pyrmont tended to fit into a few well defined categories. The CSR employees clustered around the western end of John Street, wharfies and ex-wharfies around Point, eastern Bowman and northern Harris Streets, the Darling Island shunters and other railway employees around Murray, Bunn and southern Harris Street and people working around the Fishmarkets on the western side of Bowman street and around Wattle Street. There were few restaurants, but many pubs, all rough as guts. And the "media, cultural and entertainment hub" was provided by the topless barmaids at the Terminus, and the parties thrown by the squatters of Scott and Point Streets.

Plein air painting of semi-detached workers cottages in Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
'A tale of two cottages' 2
2012 oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm
Enquiries about similar paintings
While Number 27 has a neatly rendered step and a pretty little white picket fence,in contrast the facade of number 29 has shown a distressing tendency to fall face down in the gutter like Lindsay Lohan.
Recently an emergency repair of an unflattering bright red brick retaining wall had to be applied to stop the rest of the cottage sliding down the hill.
However, the "bad twin" still has good bones and is possibly not beyond redemption.
I sold my small canvas so I'm starting another plein air painting of the same cottages from a slightly different angle
'A tale of two cottages' 2
2012 oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm
Enquiries about similar paintings
Every time I paint in Pyrmont Street I fantasize about what could be done by a sympathetic owner, some TLC and vast quantities of time and money......
I finished the smaller canvas only just in time for it to dry for the opening of the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery last night!
It had barely been hung before it was sold and taken away by the happy owner. They hadn't even run out of wine and cheese at the opening.
So I'll be back soon on the corner of John and Pyrmont streets to finish a slightly larger canvas.
The Xmas exhibition continues until 31st December 2012
FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
  mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pyrmont Paintings past and present
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Thursday 29 November 2012

Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Recently I have been painting yet another magnificent ruin from the notorious Wakil collection of derelict buildings.
The Wakils, who also own the Terminus Hotel and the old milkbar on the corner of John and Harris Street seem to be obsessed with playing a 30 year long game of Monopoly...with real buildings.
This is the Darling Island Bond and Free Store at 12 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont.
My first drawings and paintings of this building date from nearly 30 years ago, and the changes are almost imperceptible. On the southern side, windows were cut into the brickwork during the 1980s. The plane trees have grown so that they obscure my view of the row of charming 1880s terraces next door. The residents of 14 Pyrmont St had planted ivy which crept up the wall, but later they cut the ivy and it died off before it could continue its conquest.
Otherwise it is as though I have been sent back in the Tardis to the Pyrmont of the 1980s.

Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Darling Island Bond and Free"
en plein air, in front of 27 Pyrmont Street
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Originally this bond store was home of "Australian Thermite Company Pty Ltd" and must have been built either just before the First World War or during its first few months.
As far as I know, the cutting for the Pyrmont Goods Line which curves around the north of this building dates from about 1911-14 (?) so the Bond store would have been built around then. It also has a faint whiff of the utilitarian 'Federation Free' style architecture seen in other red brick storehouses around the Pyrmont peninsula such as the Royal Edward Victualling Yards.


Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
My painting of "Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
on my french box easel, in Pyrmont Street
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Thermite is a mix of aluminium oxide and another metal oxide (usually iron).
It was used for welding in-place of thick steel sections such as locomotive axle-frames so that the repair can take place without removing the part from where it has been installed.
Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
"Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
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Enquiries

A thermite weld is spectacular.
Molten metal drops into the mould in a blinding flash.
The still glowing edges are trimmed still glowing and then polished until you can't see the join with the steel rail on either side.
It is a very traditional work process, first patented in the 1890s, but it would still have been the last word in modern technology when 12 Pyrmont Street was first built.
Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012
Enquiries
Rail under stress can easily buckle.
Thermite can be used for quickly cutting or welding steel such as rail tracks, without requiring complex or heavy equipment.
However, thermite welding must be done carefully as defects are often present in such welded junctions.
Also the rails must remain straight, without dipped joints, which can cause wear on high speed and heavy axle load lines.

Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P271 'Darling Island Bond and Free,
12 Pyrmont street' 2013
oil on canvas 46 x 46cm
Available

Thermite is not technically classed as an explosive, however anyone who's watched a certain early episode of 'Breaking Bad' will appreciate its force and effectiveness!
Back in those days living next door to a Bond store full of thermite would definitely have qualified as living "on the wrong side of the tracks".
Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012

I'm not sure when the "Australian Thermite Company" building became the "Darling Island Bond and Free".
It must have been at least a couple of decades after its construction, as I have seen some unfortunately undated photos which must have been taken after 1916, but before 1948, as they show the empty yard to the east of the original 1904 Power Station building before the second power station was completed in 1951.
The faded letters "Darling Island Bond and Free" can still be just made out on the south and east side of the building.
Plein air oil painting of abandoned derelict 'Darling Island Bond and Free' warehouse, Pyrmont st Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012

I'd like to thank the people who took photos of me while I was painting and sent them to me. Unfortunately their emails bounced and they used nicknames so I don't know how to personally credit them, but I'm grateful as I was far too hot and tired to cross the street to take photos.
I'd also like to thank the occupants of number 14 Pyrmont Street for reviving me with kindness and their excellent coffee while I was painting on an extremely hot day.
I displayed this painting in the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery
The opening was on Saturday 1st December 2012, from 5-7pm.
The exhibition continued until 31st December 2012
FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
Bay Village, 28-34 Cross Street Double Bay, NSW 2028
Hours M-F 10am-5pm Sat 10 - 4pm Sun 11-4pm
ph/fax: 02 93272475 mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au
Page of Jane Bennett paintings

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog


Related posts