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 yellowblock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yellowblock. 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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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.

Thursday 29 October 2015

Sydney Sandstone - Painting the Lands Department building

The Lands Department building 22-33 Bridge Street Sydney, is one of the most outstanding surviving Victorian buildings in Sydney. The building had been used continuously for the purpose which it was designed for - as the administrative head office of Department of Lands.
Unfortunately, this will soon change.
I don't know whether all the original features which makes this building so wonderful will be retained, but I thought that I should attempt to paint it while it is still in its original state.
I managed to set up my easel in Macquarie Place Park, directly opposite the corner of Bridge and Gresham street.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries
James Barnet was the architect mostly responsible for the design of the Lands Department building, although Walter Liberty Vernon and William Edmund Kemp also made contributions.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries





































The foundation stone was laid in 1876 by the Minister of Lands and it was completed in 1893. The Renaissance Revival Style facades are of dressed Pyrmont sandstone
The ground, first, and second floors have pilasters and entablatures of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders respectively, each standing on appropriate pedestals.  
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries
A large copper dome, 55' square at the base, but changing to an octagon at the top, rises above the Bridge Street facade.
The clock tower has a copper onion-shaped dome which was allegedly influenced by the shape of the water carafe of Sir Henry Parkes.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries




















The best of Classical tradition was fused with the most cutting edge technology for the period. Heating, lighting, ventilation and a system of communication involving speaking through tubes and operating pneumatic bells was incorporated in the design.
Builder John Young introduced one of Sydney’s first reinforced-concrete floor slabs, with concrete vaults to improve fire resistance.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
 2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries























There are 12 niches on each facade, which were all intended to be filled with sculptures of explorers or legislators who made a major contribution to the settlement of the nation.
Although 48 men were nominated by the architect as being suitable subjects, most were rejected and only 23 statues were commissioned, leaving 25 niches unfilled. 
In 2010-11 a new statue of colonial surveyor James Meehan (1774-1826) was created and placed in an empty niche on corner of Loftus/Bent Streets.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries






































In my painting the statue of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks is on the left, and the statue of the explorer Sturt on the right.
plein air oil painting of Lands Department building in Bridge st Sydney by heritage artist Jane Bennett
U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Enquiries
In the late 1980s the building was earmarked by the NSW Governnment as one of the potential sites for conversion into a casino.
To protect the building from unsympathetic development, a Permanent Conservation Order was passed by the NSW Heritage Council. 
However, although it is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in Australia, it still faces an uncertain future.
Both Sydney’s historic
The hotel will open in 2021 after the government employees finally leave in 2018.


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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

Sunday 6 April 2014

Another one bites the dust

plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
Starting a large panorama on Sunday 30th March about 10am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo
from High Street, Millers Point" 
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :

I have spent most of the past week painting a large panoramic canvas to show the Harbour Control Tower from High Street in Millers Point.

On the far left hand side is a view of the Barangaroo construction site, with giant chunks of recently excavated yellowblock sandstone forming a pseudo-naturalistic cove. 
On the far right hand side, the workers cottages of High Street stare down disapprovingly onto their brash new neighbour. 
In the centre of the picture is the last bastion of the Hungry Mile, the mushroom topped column of the Harbour Control Tower.
plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
 Monday 31st March about 1pm
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo
from High Street, Millers Point" 
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :


The Harbour Tower was also jokingly known as ''the Pill" because it "controlled all the berths" in the harbour. According to the National Trust, it should be conserved and reused as it symbolizes more than 200 years of shipping in Sydney.
However, this is an unlikely fate, as the Barangaroo Delivery Authority then bought the concrete, steel and glass structure from Sydney Ports for $2.6 million. 
Despite its unsurpassed 360 degree harbour views, the Harbour Control Tower quite obviously doesn't fit into their vision for Barangaroo, so its days are numbered.
plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
Tuesday 1st April about 11am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo
from High Street, Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :























Sydney Ports once manned it 24/7, but it has not been operational since April 11th 2011, when vessel control services for Sydney Harbour finally moved to Port Botany.

plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
 Wednesday 2nd April about 11am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo
from High Street, Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :






















The tower opened in 1974 to give Harbour Control the best possible views of the harbour to ensure safe passage for thousands of ships each year. The architectural drawings and plans for its construction used to be hung in the foyer of the amenities level, just in front of the lift, until some light fingered wharfie pinched them.

plein air oil painting of the Sydney Harbour Control Tower in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
'Evening Harbour Control Tower
from Moore's Wharf' 2013
oil on canvas 178 x 122cm


























This is my huge canvas painted from my Moore's Wharf studio, showing the last time that the gorgeous sandstone escarpment was completely visible.
It has by now totally disappeared under a layer of scaffolding and the retaining wall for the North Barangaroo Headland Park.
The park will slope from its soi disant naturalistic 1788 coastline up to Clyne Reserve and Merriman street. Obviously the Tower will get short shrift. It is an emblem of another era and different values.
It looks as though Precision Demolition will be getting more work!
I last caught their act at Port Kembla, where they lived up to their name, neatly and precisely dropping the Port Kembla Copper Stack onto the grounds of Port Kembla Copper. Previously I had met them during the saga of the sinking of ex-HMAS Adelaide.
I am surprised, and more than a little concerned, that as the demolition of the Harbour Control Tower was virtually a foregone conclusion, that it wasn't demolished before construction of the headland was so far advanced. However neatly they drop it, it would make a bit of a dent in the painstakingly arranged faux natural headland. Unless they are planning to leave the pieces there as a giant water feature or a Brutalist concrete novelty sundial in the centre of the park. 
It would certainly be a conversation piece.
Or perhaps the charming terraces of Merriman Street are also superfluous to their requirements?
There's no accounting for taste.
oil painting of the interior of Sydney Harbour Control Tower in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
'The Shipping News - Last  view of interior
of Harbour Control Tower '
 2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
Enquiries about this painting :

I had been "Artist in Residence" in the Harbour Control Tower by Sydney Ports Corporation for nearly a decade.
This is the final view of the interior of the top floor. The whiteboard has a list of the very last shipping movements on April the last operational day of the Harbour Control Tower.
The clock has stopped at 10.44am, Tuesday 24th May, and has been left that way.
After the last operational use of the Tower, maintenance staff had to still have access to be able to remove furniture, cables and other equipment. If I arrived early enough, I would be allowed to tag along and do a bit more painting. 
My very last visit was just before its eventual demolition.

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