Pyrmont Sandstone - Rock On !

My painting of a partly demolished Pyrmont warehouse is a finalist in the 2012 NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize.

This Exhibition will be held:

Tue 1 May - Thu 31 May 2012

NSW Parliament, Macquarie Street Sydney 8.30 AM - 5.45 PM

 

'Industrial Cathedral, the Cooperage, C.S.R. Refinery'

oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

Enquiries about this painting:

FINALIST : Plein Air Painting Prize 2012

This canvas is of a sandstone escarpment seen through the screen of rotting timber beams that once were part of the Cooperage building in the CSR Refinery.

This painting focuses on the mysterious patterns of shadow made by the fall of light. The cavernous space and rows of columns reminded me of the interiors of cathedrals and ruined abbeys.

The wall at the back was the famous butter-yellow Pyrmont sandstone, which has been quarried to decorate the best loved historic Sydney buildings such as the Australian Museum, the Sydney GPO, the University of Sydney.

At sunset the sandstone rock face caught the last rays of light and the derelict warehouse was transformed.

This painting has come full circle. Out of Pyrmont into an Eastern suburbs gallery, back to Pyrmont as part of the 2011 Pyrmont Festival, then to Macquarie St as a finalist in the NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize.

Oddly enough the sandstone wall shown at the back of the painting has made a similar journey as the painting. Some of it has made a triumphant visit to Macquarie Street's heritage showcase of 19th century architecture.

After being sliced and diced like a huge block of cheese by LendLease during the excavation for the McCaffrey's apartments in Jacksons Landing, it then suffered a few years in ignominious limbo, in a stockpiled pyramid under the no-man's land under the Anzac Bridge .

Ironically it came from the former "Paradise Quarry" so it should have been spared limbo.

Now these blocks are having a glorious afterlife being lovingly reshaped by master stonemasons in the Alexandria yards, to adorn the classic façades of Sydney's most beautiful buildings.

Some appropriate graffiti from one of the onsite port-a-loos during the re-opening of the quarry - "Sandstone Rocks!"

Totally.

 

 

U230 'Gargoyle, University of Sydney' 2009

oil on board 25 x 20cm

Enquiries about this painting

This alarming little creature is one of the refurbished gargoyles hanging off one of the spires of the University of Sydney. He was carved from the sandstone extracted from the Jacksons Landing excavations, possibly even from the escarpment I painted in the background of "Industrial Cathedral".

The MacLaurin Hall is an important piece of heritage of the University Quadrangle Building. Designed by the Government Architect of the day Walter Liberty Vernon it was constructed in 1911 as the Fisher Library ,which was later relocated in 1963.

In October 2007, the University began conservation work on the façade of MacLaurin Hall. This included work on the sandstone walls, bosses, windows and gargoyles. They were treated with a poultice to remove salt; the poultice was left on for 10 days or until it fell off, and then re-applied to ensure the salt was removed.

Before this treatment, some of the gargoyles had shown signs of splitting and falling. As the original gargoyles crumbled they therefore had to be replaced or extensively refurbished so that they wouldn't fall on people's heads from a great height.

Imagine one of those landing on your head!

Must be one of those Legendary "drop bears".

Related posts

Terminus Redux

To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant 
My Pyrmont page in this blog

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present

Pyrmont sandstone - The Lizards of Oz

I used to think that in Sydney, sandstone was as common as dirt.
Sydney is to me, not the emerald city or the Harbour city, but a golden city - the sandstone city. Sandstone seems to be everywhere -from sand and rocks on the beaches to the glorious escarpments revealed by cuttings for expressways. But most of this apparent abundance is commercially useless and the rest is fit only for fill or crazy paving at best.
The only sandstone of sufficient quality and durability to be used to restore or replace the exquisite carvings of Sydney's iconic 19th century architectural heritage such as the Queen Victoria building, the buildings on Macquarie St, or the University of Sydney is Pyrmont yellowblock.
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock consisting mostly of quartz or a mix of quartz and feldspar sands, in conjunction with materials such as calcite, clay, iron oxides, and silica which cement it together. It takes on the color of its components, most commonly tan to yellowish or tinted pink to dark red due to varying levels of iron oxide.
There are a lot of variations of texture and color, not many of which are suitable for commercial use. Common forms of sandstone include arkose which has a high feldspar content, graywacke which contains angular rock fragments, and conglomerate which contains rounded rock fragments. Other common stones included in this category are bluestone- a hard, dense feldspathic sandstone; brownstone- a reddish-brown stone taking its color from its high iron content;and flagstone- a sandstone or sandy slate that is easily split into large, thin slabs.
The spine of the Pyrmont peninsula is a sandstone ridge, still visible at Pyrmont Point despite reshaping by deforestation, quarrying, land reclamation and subsequent industrialization and de-industrialization. Pyrmont's topography was dramatically altered as the quarrymasters cut vast swathes through its famous yellowblock, stripping it bare to make the rest of Sydney beautiful.


" Ways Terrace, Pyrmont"
1994 oil on board 41 x 122cm
Enquiries
Often the demolition madness that engulfed the peninsula throughout the 1990s would have the unexpected bonus of revealing the hidden beauty beneath the surface.
In 1989 the gardens planted by local residents in the James Watkinson Reserve in front of Ways Terrace were demolished and left derelict. The 2 dead trees on the hill were a notorious landmark for over a decade. The hole became a pond with many waterfowl, so possibly it was the site of the original Pyrmont spring.
When LendLease started the demolition of the CSR Distillery for the Jackson's Landing development, McCaffery's stables were excavated and revived as a premium source of sandstone.
It was cut like giant blocks of cheese and stored under the newly built Anzac Bridge before being sculpted to restore heritage projects on historic buildings all over Sydney.

"Pyrmont - McCaffery's Hill -Demolition of CSR Distillery "
2000 oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm
Enquiries 

This painting shows the site of the old "Paradise Quarry" , renowned as the source of the best Pyrmont yellowblock sandstone during the 19th century.
The "paradise stone" was a warm honey-yellow to brown colour but was dense fine-grained and comparatively difficult to work compared to the stone from the other 2 quarries, "Purgatory" and "Hellhole".
After the quarries closed in the late 19th century, the McCaffrey's stables were built there by the CSR to stable the horses that transported the sugar and rum from the refinery and distillery. Later the stables were used to house the brilliant green sugar trucks which had replaced the horses and carts.


" Sandstone under the Anzac Bridge" 1998
oil on canvas 41 x 61cm
Enquiries 
After these blocks of sandstone had been quarried at McCaffrey's Stables, they were then sent to cool their heels for a while under the Anzac Bridge, where the dragon boats are now stored.
Later these blocks were sent to the stone masons trained by the master mason George Proudman under the Centenary Stoneworks Programme. Eventually this sandstone was used to restore heritage items such as the gargoyles of the University of Sydney.
Pyrmont’s sandstone has decorated the best loved historic Sydney buildings such as the Australian Museum, the Sydney Post Office, the Lands Department and the University of Sydney. These intricate swirls of foliage writhe around the top of the columns of the western entrance of Sydney Technical College in Ultimo.


P258 'Capital of Sydney Technical College'
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Enquiries

The Sydney Technical College building, which is part of the main campus of Sydney Institute of TAFE (Technical and Further Education), is on Mary Ann Street at the southern end of Bulwara Road in Ultimo, although the street address is given as 651-731 Harris Street. Built in 1891, it was designed by William Kemp in the Federation Romanesque architectural style. I call it Glebe Gothic.


P259 'Capital of Sydney Technical College' 2012
oil on canvas 20 x 20cm
Enquiries 

The heavily ornate brick and terracocotta construction is adorned with bizarrely incongruous Australian ornamental plants and animals such as waratahs, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, platypuses and lizards.
They were created by the master sculptor of the Lands Department building, William Priestly Macintosh.
There is a similar outburst of patriotism with the sculptors of the gargoyles and grotesques of the University of Sydney. Some Australian fauna can be adapted into truly frightening gargoyles and it's a pity that their forms were unknown to the master craftsmen of Cluny. One of the bug-eyed twitchy kangaroos with bared claws poised to hurtle off the roof of the Quadrangle is known fondly by the students as "Skippy on a 3 day meth binge".

'The Lizards of oz-

Sydney Technical College, Ultimo Tafe' 2012

oil on board 20 x 40cm
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Lizards do enjoy soaking up the warmth, and the golden sandstone attracts the few feeble rays of sun that have been available this wet summer.
These goannas have picked a precarious but attractive perch to catch up on their tans while stalking the hapless marsupials and monotremes that cling to the arches below. The platypus seems unaware but the possum looks very alarmed and turns to hiss in anger.
The sculptor has done a wonderful job of reproducing the scaliness of their skins, and even the slight greying discolouration of the sandstone on their backs helps add to the illusion of reptilian flesh.

Related posts

Terminus Redux

To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant 
My Pyrmont page in this blog

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 

Brewer's Droop - Painting the Carleton United Brewery, Chippendale

The southern edge of the Sydney CBD, adjacent to Central railway station incorporating Broadway and Chippendale, was dominated by a walled off 'Empire of Beer' for over 170 years.

Kent Brewery was built by John Tooth and Charles Newnham in 1835. It exploited the fresh water from nearby Blackwattle Creek. However, Blackwattle Creek didn't stay fresh for long, and soon the surrounding area was a notorious slum.

The unregulated and noxious local industries included the Swamp Abattoirs across Parramatta Road in Ultimo, which provided the Char House of the Colonial Sugar Refinery with bones to burn to produce charcoal for filtering sugar.

CH4 Pub with no beer- Carleton United Brewery 2
2009 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
Available

When bubonic plague hit waterside Sydney in the first decade of the 20th century, the authorities embarked on a program of slum clearances and 350 Chippendale houses were resumed by 1911.

Tooth's brewery site moved into the vacuum, extending their empire of beer more than 6 acres into the surrounding residential areas. Tooth's owned the western side of Kensington Street, and demolished properties  to construct new brewery buildings, as well as a wall to exclude the public. Yet another wall was built on the northern side of Wellington Street.

You can see this wall running behind the Irving Street Brewery boiler house in the painting above, which was painted during the demolition craziness not long after the property had been bought by Frasers Property for redevelopment.

Tooth’s Irving Street Brewery was built in 1912, and covered most of the land between Carlton and Balfour Streets.

CH3 Pub with no beer- Carleton United Brewery
2009 oil on canvas 100 x 75cm
Available

This iconic Sydney landmark is an 180 ft high octagonal brick tapering structure with metal strapping with cracked coping. Brick buttresses transfer the structure to a square base. 

The Irving Street Brewing Tower ceased its brewing operation in 1979, as it was superseded by the New Brewhouse.

It was one of the earliest and most prominent chimney stacks built in the CBD, and one of the last remaining in inner Sydney.

In the 1980s, a large redevelopment saw the demolition of all but one of the original Kent Brewery buildings. and Carlton and Uniting Breweries purchased it.

Until 1983 there were 1000 personnel at the brewery including lab staff, engineers, plumbers, fitters and turners, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, coopers, trades assistants, storemen, drivers and security.

In 1983 Tooth and Co were taken over by the Adelaide Steamship Company and the brewing assets were sold to Carlton and United Breweries and in 2003 the brewery closed forever.

Frasers Property bought the 5.8 hectare site in 2007 and embarked on a wildly ambitious $2 billion urban renewal project. It incorporates mixed use development including high density apartments,student accommodation in Kensington and Abercrombie Streets, a shopping centre, office blocks, and the old Brewery will be turned into a boutique hotel.

In my paintings you can see how the Irving Street Brewery building resembled a ruined castle on an island in the middle of a moat. It was a dreadfully boggy site after all the other buildings were clear felled around it and therre was a perpetual pool of water surrounding the old brewery.

Some heritage features have been selectively kept in the mix. Run down terraces in Kensington Street have become "Spice Alley", a funky "Eat Street", the sandstone gateway has been kept and the Irving Street Brewery building has now been adaptively reused as a community facility while also housing the site’s sustainable features including the tri generation plant providing the power, heating and cooling.

Chippendale, once an embarrassing slum, is now the fashionable hipster enclave known as Central Park.

Related posts

Barangaroo-Red Square, the Drill Rig and a little Archaeology

My page of Urban Landscape paintings

Both sides of the Street- My exhibition at St Vincents

Tugs, barges and Tall ships - Glebe Island, Jackson's Landing and White Bay

'The tug 'Edi' and the OES barge at Glebe Island wharf'
 2010 oil painting on canvas 31 x 41cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings

This tug escorted the OES barge to White Bay and then to Port Botany, where it is laying cables.

This canvas was painted at Glebe Island wharf, opposite LendLease's Jackson's Landing Development. In the background the yellow column of one of their apartment blocks pokes up like an impudent finger. There is an equally lairy lime green apartment block further down the road to match - their not entirely endearing local nicknames are the 'Lemon' and the 'Gherkin' respectively. Jackson's Landing was built on the site of the CSR Refinery and Distillery, which had operated on the north-western end of the Pyrmont Peninsula for over a century. A relic of these times, known as the 'Cooperage' can be seen directly in front of its fluorescent new neighbour.

'The OES Barge with the tug 'Edi' at Glebe Island from the park at Jacksons Landing, Pyrmont''
oil painting on canvas 25 x 31 cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings

The view from across the ditch.
This evening study of the barge and tug is painted from the park in front of the 'Cooperage' at Jackson's Landing.

'Dawn -The tug 'Edi' at Glebe Island wharf '
2010 oil painting on canvas 25 x 51cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings

Sunrise, with the tug docked in front of the Anzac Bridge. 

The grey apartment block in front of its eastern pylon, catching reflections of the rose pink dawn clouds, is the strangely named 'evolve' building. I hate buildings with verbs for names - especially in the imperative case. It sounds like a command - both patronising and presumptuous. 'Into what?' is the unspoken question.
The crew of the tug and the barge are making preparations for the departure to White Bay, and then, just as the song goes, they are bound for Botany Bay.

G45 'The tug 'Edi' with the 'Southern Swan' at White Bay'

2010 oil on canvas 31 x 25cm

SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings

This was painted at the Ausbarge Wharf facility at Berth 2 White Bay, Roberts Street, Rozelle.
The tall ship 'The Southern Swan' (formerly the 'Svanen') is docked behind the Ausbarge tug 'Edi'. This tall ship, built in Oslo 1916 is a schooner (rig: triple masted gaff) used for educational sail-training.
Ausbarge's other tugs include the 'Warren', the 'Taralga', the 'Coramba', the 'Morpeth', the 'Bega', the 'Temora', the 'Marrakai' and the 'Mudgee' in roughly descending order from largest to smallest.

'The tugs 'Edi' and 'Morpeth' at White Bay wharf'    

2010 oil on canvas 25 x 31cm
SOLD

Enquiries about similar paintings

The 'Morpeth', much smaller than the 'Edi' is not quite the runt of the litter. She just looks dwarfed by the 'Edi' in comparison. She is a steel built twin screw tug with a 7 tonne bollard pull and a LOA 15.8m Draft 2.38m.
At the moment, White Bay is a sleepy little nook of Sydney Harbour, filled with little tugs, garbage barges, boats refuelling etc. All the flotsam and jetsam of the remnants of Sydney's working harbour.
But this will change - and soon.
Soon White Bay will be redeveloped extensively. The cruise ship terminal, now temporarily located at a marquee at Barangaroo's Wharf 5, will be permanently relocated to White Bay to make way for the Barangaroo redevelopment.
Plans for the new terminal are awaiting approval from the NSW Planning Department.
Construction is expected to start soon, with completion due in 2012. So watch this space!

 

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