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Friday 21 July 2017

Oils ain't oils- Painting Still Life in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

A still life typically depicts inanimate subject matter. 
It was initially despised as the most lowly form of painting. But every still life is a memento mori.
Memento mori is Latin for “Remember that you must die”.
I've delved into the long tradition of the ‘still life’ genre, which celebrates the magic power of painting an arrangement of
commonplace objects to reflect on ideas of mortality.
When captured in paint, they are imbued with a life beyond the ordinary.
"Vanitas” elements reveal the emptiness of material pursuits and futility of earthly ambitions.  
The Latin noun Vanitas literally means “emptiness” and the central theme in these paintings is the Christian view of earthly life and the futility  & worthlessness of all ambition.
I love to paint “useless” things from industrial sites, the minutiae of everyday life. There's a poignant quality in this “rubbish”, so trivial to most. These remnants provide me with an endless source of subject matter. There are no people in these pictures but their presence is always felt. History, memory and observation provide the bones of the story.
Plein air still life painting of old oil cans in Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E130A Oils ain't oils 1 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm
These rusty old oil cans from the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops truly are symbols of transience. They will be discarded and thrown into the skip bin as soon as I've finished my canvases. I've won them a stay of execution with my paintings.
Plein air still life painting of old oil cans in Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E130B Oils ain't oils 2 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm
They contained the necessary ingredient to lubricate engines to keep them moving. Literally, to make something go. 
And they went.
Locomotives won't be repaired and maintained in the Large Erecting Shop for much longer. The best possible future for it will be as a running shed where only exactly what is strictly necessary to run trains will be tolerated. All else will be relocated at best, or discarded at worst. If it doesn't become a running shed, Mirvac and Channel 7 are lurking just outside to finish it off.
Plein air still life painting of old oil cans in Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E130C Oils ain't oils 3 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm
Behind the oil cans was a board with inscriptions "1/2 Nuts", "5/8 Nuts", "3/4 Nuts","7/8 Nuts", which always made me laugh. You don't have to be totally nuts to work her, just half.
Plein air still life painting of old oil cans in Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E132 Oils ain't oils 2 2017 oil on aluminium panel 51 x 51cm.
I've concocted different methods for reproducing variety of surfaces  by experimenting with painting on metal panels.
This works well with the rusty cans - I leave the metal bare of paint and only paint in the rust.
This technique pays homage to the distant past.
When light rebounds from a matte surface, the irregularites of the surface scatter the light. However when light strikes a smooth polished surface such as metal there is a gleam, shimmer or lustre which can even reveal the shape of the original light source. Medieval students of optics called the depiction of reflected light in a painting "splendour". Light was not only regarded as beautiful, but also deemed to be sacred. This quality of light was difficult to reproduce in painting. Early medieval artists would rely on the inclusion of reflective and precious metals such as gold leaf, until the development of oil painting in the 15th century allowed artists like van Eyck the ability to create the illusion of reflection by superimposing thin translucent layers of colour. 
The workmen trained in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops were master manipulators of metal, so in these still life paintings I am using both these artistic traditions to capture every nuance of their lost tools.

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Wednesday 5 July 2017

38's are great, mate

This is the big brother of the small square painting that I created in "Ghost Train"
I liked the small painting so much that I decided to paint a much larger canvas that would really evoke the atmosphere of the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in pin sharp detail. All the apparent chaos and clutter of a true workshop in all its glory!
This old office in the Large Erecting shop of Eveleigh Railway Workshops, had been used to store stacks of windows and doors waiting to be repaired to refurbish a carriage. It has a couple of old signs on its roof "Engine Shop" and "The Professionals", which I was told had been pinched from a local real estate agent!
It's ironic in more ways than one, because, whilst experts in their field, the people working on the restoration of 3830 were mostly volunteers.
In front of it are lathes, drills and boxes of rusting tools that obviously are many decades old.
The 3830 was put back together with the help of parts cannibalized from other 38 class locos.
The list of 38 class locos refers to the original source of particular items that finally ended up as part of 3830.


Plein air oil painting of the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
E129 '38s are great mate'
2017 oil on canvas 91 x 122cm
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On the weathered sky blue boards are inscriptions in white chalk about its time of service.
"3830 18 years 11 months 4 days
Into service 27/9/49
Withdrawn 31/10/67 (Illegible) birthday 23 years
Cost £53,145/2/0 Basic Wage 4/8 11/20d/hour
Builders' No 170 40 hours £8/12/0 approx"
I've read worse poetry!
The scarred and half rotten boards also bear the postscript  "38's are great mate" written on them.

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