Exhibition at the 10th Pyrmont Festival of Wine Food and Art

It's the 10th anniversary of the Pyrmont Festival of Wine Food and Art, which will be held 11am - 5pm on  Saturday and Sunday 28th and 29th May at Pirrama Park.  

I'll exhibit a selection of artworks painted 'en plein air' in Pyrmont from the early 1980s  to about  2017. Most of the works I'll exhibit were painted within a couple of hundred metres from the Festival site.

I was 'Artist in Residence' at many locations -Pyrmont Power Station, the CSR Refinery and Distillery, Pyrmont Goods Yard, the Waterpolice site, Jones Bay Wharf, Union Square and the top of the half completed Anzac Bridge. 

I had several 'pop-up' studios on and around the area that used to be the festival site. To the west, at the end of Harris st, was the CSR refinery, where I'd set up my easel at the top of the old boilerhouse - later to become the 'Elizabeth' apartment complex of the Jacksons Landing Development. 

P225A The Boilerhouse CSR Refinery  1991 oil on canvas 91 x 91cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every now and then, I'd even climb onto the roof and paint from the chimneys!

The painting below shows the old CSR chem labs and McCaffrey's from the base of the chimney.

P250 Pyrmont panorama from the CSR  1991 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really excited to be back after so long, as Pyrmont has changed so much since - from an industrial ghost town to a media, retail and entertainment hub. 

The painting below shows the Water Police site, which is now Pirrama Park - the site of next weeks' Festival.

P243A Water Police site 1991 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The former Manly ferry, MV Baragoola was moored at the Wharf during the early 1990s. It recently sank at its berth off the Waverton Coal Loader, only a few weeks short of its centenary.

Tipping Point -MV Baragoola

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

From the 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”   by Ernest Hemingway

Another version of "Hemingway's Law of Motion " is  by the  economist Rudiger Dornbusch:

"The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought."

It's a common human failing that we rarely act until a crisis happens.

The initial effects happen gradually.

Drip by drip.

It's not a problem...

Until it is.

One day 'Gradually' will always  become 'suddenly'. 

This is the tipping point.

I will leave it to others to recount the long, troubled history of the MV Baragoola.

The best  account I've found is in an article in the Manly Daily.

Half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm Against the staircase of MV Baragoola

About 6 or 7 years ago I was invited to paint on board by one of the members of the Baragoola Preservation Society. He talked about the possibility of holding an exhibition with the proceeds being used to help fund repairs. The ship was in obvious need of  massive amounts of work, but at the time, the volunteers seemed to have enthusiasm and a sense of purpose.

Half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm

This is the last painting I started on board the Baragoola, before her change of ownership.

The artist painting a half finished panorama of Sydney Harbour from the Baragoola 20th February 2016 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm

A couple of years later I finally returned after dealing with a serious illness in the family, to find a change of regime. Instead of the previous volunteers there was someone described variously as either the new  "shipkeeper" or "owner".

The ship was in a far more dilapidated condition and the gangplank was frankly dangerous with loose and missing railings. 

I was welcomed at first, then gradually the behaviour of those on board became strange and then alarming. I desperately wanted to remove my paintings and easel, but I would have needed help across the ricketty gangplank- and I knew I wouldn't get any.

The terrible condition of the vessel and gangplank as well as my reservations about the attitude and behaviour of the recent occupants made it impossible for me to ever return to the vessel to retrieve my belongings. I wondered at first if I was over-reacting- until I asked several people if they could escort me back on the vessel, and they all refused, saying they wouldn't be game to set foot on board.

I kept hoping that people with expertise and unlimited funding would one day take control, but knew that this wasn't going to happen.

The half-finished canvas above, as well as my easels, paint and many other canvases went down with the ship. 

The mooring lines still hold parts of it in place, while the weight of water, tide and debris pulls the rest away. 

As I paint the wreck from the Coal Loader and the Cape Don, I watch  my old canvases lap against the boom with the other flotsam.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

The last line from the 1925 novel "The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Vale Baragoola

Part of Australia's maritime history has been lost forever when the MV Baragoola, the last Sydney built Manly ferry, finally sank at her mooring at the Coal Loader Wharf, Waverton.

Sadly the ferry was only a couple of weeks short of her centenary.

She was built in Balmain and launched at Morts Dock on 14 February, 1922 for the Circular Quay to Manly service. Originally a steamer, she was converted to diesel-electric in 1961 and was retired in 1983.

For nearly 20 years she was at various moorings around Pyrmont and Blackwattle Bay.

This is a canvas I painted in 1991 from the top floor of the tablet House of the CSR Refinery (now Jackson's Landing). The MV Baragoola is on the left hand side next to Wharf 22-23, which was demolished shortly after I finished this painting.

 

 

 

 

P243A 'Baragoola and the Water Police painted from the Tablet House of the CSR' 1991 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Since 2003, she has been laid up at Balls Head Bay on the north side of Sydney Harbour as attempts to restore the vessel continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S122 'Cape Don + Baragoola' 2019 oil on canvas 91 x 183cm

This is a large panorama I painted from the Coal Loader in 2019 showing the Cape Don in the foreground.

What a contrast with the wreckage I painted recently!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The artist painting the wreck of MV Baragoola 

(Photo taken by Catherine Atherton)

Over the last few decades of her life, many people volunteered to attempt to save Baragoola.

Painting wreck of MV Baragoola from the Coal Loader 31 x 61cm

 

Painting wreck of MV Baragoola from the Coal Loader 31 x 61cm and 45 x 92cm

For a while restoration attempts seemed to make some headway, but a few years ago the ownership changed and the ship deteriorated noticeably.

Unfortunately it became increasingly obvious that her fate was inevitable.

Painting wreck of MV Baragoola from the Coal Loader 31 x 61cm

 

 

Painting wreck of MV Baragoola from the Coal Loader 45 x 92cm