Illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows- Painting the Dunlop - Slazenger factory Part 2

The graffiti inside the abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite remember what it was.

'Abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory
Soda panorama' 2015
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm 
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The walls are rich in texture, vibrant in colour and elaborate in detail.

They are possibly full of hidden meanings, incomprehensible to the uninitiated, or it could be just random doodling.

'Abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory
Soda panorama' 2015
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm 
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The calligraphy is cursive and the chunky letters are interlocked like links in a chain, making the words hard to read yet hypnotic to look at.

'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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There is a "horror vacui" - blank space isn't tolerated and won't last long.
Images are scattered throughout the factory, but the text dominates and has become imagery in its own right.

'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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The letters are outlined in black, often with highlights of white or red on the ascenders (the parts of letters such as "h" "b" or "d" that extend above the line)  or descenders (the parts of letters such as "g" "q" or "j" that extend below the line).

Occasionally backgrounds of gold or silver add a bit more bling and some are even adorned with star bursts.

'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm

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John Paul, the demolisher who had given me the heads up about the site, finally nailed it.

The Book of Kells, he said. (John Paul is Irish!)

To be sure, to be sure!

 Detail of 'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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This is a close up of my painting of the graffiti on left hand wall, and you can see that John Paul really had a point.

In another context, I could easily imagine one of the letters as a historiated initial in a medieval illuminated manuscript.

A historiated initial is an enlarged letter at the beginning of a text, which contains a picture.

Detail of 'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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This is a closeup detail of my painting of the graffiti in one of the small rooms to the left hand side.

This font is dramatically serif (there is a large difference between thick and thin lines) and is extravagantly embellished with finials( tapered or curved ends), swashes (extended  decorative flourishes)and lachrymals (teardrop shapes).

 Detail of 'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory
'Soda' panorama'  2015  oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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Many different hands have been at work here, overlapping and adding marginalia, drolleries and the odd obscenity.

 "Soda" has been written in a more "slab serif" style, where there is less difference between thick and thin lines.

This tag stands out from its neighbours due to its cleaner font as well as its striking silver, black and pink colour scheme.

 Detail of windows in 'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory
- 'Soda' panorama'  2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm  
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And what could go better with illuminated manuscripts, than stained glass windows?

These windows are very stained indeed.

The graffiti is probably much older than on the walls, as they would have only been accessible when the building still had a roof, which was at least a couple of years ago.

There is no lead separating the colours, however, being a factory, the windows were made from glass strengthened by an internal diamond grid of wiremesh. Breaks in the glass add spiderweb patterns.

'Abandoned Dunlop - Slazenger factory -
 'Soda' panorama'   2015 
oil on canvas 91 x 183cm                                       
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At sunset the window colours are reflected on the ground in a series of rainbows, an effect I last experienced visiting Chartres cathedral.

Related posts

'Palimpsest - Painting Dunlop - Slazenger factory' Part 1

Palimpsest- Painting the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger Factory

A palimpsest is a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.

The word is also used for something worked upon for one purpose and later reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

I've recently been painting both inside and outside the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory in Alexandria.

It has been abandoned for about 25 years, and has innumerable layers of graffiti ranging from the sublimely talented to the ridiculously inept.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

The walls of the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger Factory are a palimpsest - a fascinating mix of both creation and destruction.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

29-04-15 Starting my first canvas of the Dunlop-Slazenger factory. I don't know what the image is of or what it's called, so I've christened it "Yellow Eye".

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

It's an insight into the way different generations alter the landscape of their ancestors.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 The factory is full of ghosts.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

On the second day of painting this canvas, I changed the composition to include the bizarre cartoon characters on the upper walls.

There is a grotesque creature which is part baboon part wildebeast and part crocodile with wriggling worm-like hair, and two characters resembling demonic smurfs.

The glass has also been tagged, and the rays of the setting sun make it light up like the stained glass of Chartres cathedral.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

 

The building is now being sand-blasted back to the original brick and will be redeveloped for apartments.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

 

Such is progress, alas.

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

 

My extremely fashionable painting outfit. Lady Gaga will be copying this soon!

Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory

 

 

Painting in PPE (Personal protective equipment)

DS3 'Greeblies' -
Abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory'
2015 oil on canvas 122 x 122cm

 

 

Available for sale 

 

Related posts

Illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows- Painting the Dunlop - Slazenger factory Part 2

To a Good Home- St Vincent's in the Art of Darlinghurst update

A few of the paintings in my exhibition at St Vincent's have found good homes. In fact, the best homes I could have imagined!
A couple of days ago a man walked past the Frances Keevil Gallery and saw the printed article, that I had cut out of the Sydney Morning Herald, on the door. He then went to the hospital to see the exhibition as he recognized the street and houses from the tiny photo of my painting. His parents had apparently lived in one of the houses. 
I'm not sure whether it was 372 Victoria Street, which later housed Diabetes Australia, or 374 Victoria Street, which later became the R.M.O. He then purchased these 2 paintings as treasured memories of his family history.

"Victoria st terraces Nos 372 - 374
- the Diabetes Centre and the RMO"
2009 oil on canvas 51 x 41cm
SOLD Enquiries about similar paintings

"Victoria st terraces - Diabetes Australia"
2009 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
SOLD Enquiries about similar paintings

'Victoria Street mural and the clinic'
2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm
SOLD Enquiries about similar paintings
 
Now I have heard that the purchaser of "Victoria Street mural and the clinic" intends to bequeath it to the hospital, where it will stay in the office as "an important reminder of our past".
Often I never get to discover the reasons why someone buys one of my paintings. I love to find their story about the place that has such meaning for them.
When I painted these works, I had received so many lovely comments from the patients and staff of the terraces and clinic, who had loved the World Aids Day mural and the surrounding buildings.
It means a lot to an artist for their artwork to be appreciated by someone with a personal connection to the subject matter. 
What I do really matters to me, rather than being some intellectual painterly exercise.
Often I have been asked "why do I paint the particular subjects that I do?". I struggle to find the exact words to describe the feelings that I have, as I am a much better painter than I am a writer, but the fate of these paintings goes right to the core of my reasons.
The first two paintings have filled in a missing chapter of someone's lost personal history. The painting of the mural and the clinic will now hang forever as a symbol of hope and recovery.

Related posts

St Vincent's- In the Art of Darlinghurst 

Both sides of the street - My new exhibition "St Vincent's -In the Art of Darlinghurst"

To see another photo from the opening night by Julie of "Sydney Eye" see "Craggy"(sydney-eye.blogspot.com.au).


Strike while the iron is hot
 
Pyrmont paintings past and present- My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum
 
'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
 
Storm warning, Goat Island
 
Eveleigh Community Heritage Day
 
Another one bites the dust

St Vincent's- In the Art of Darlinghurst

 

Victoria st 2009 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

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In December 2009 I was asked by some people who worked at St Vincent's if I could create paintings of some terrace houses on a Darlinghurst block adjacent to St Vincent’s Public Hospital. Almost an entire block of Victoria Street between the Garvan Institute and the Green Park Hotel would be replaced by the construction of a new 11-storey medical centre.

'Victoria Street mural and the clinic'

2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm

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The structures on this side of Victoria Street included the RMO, the Diabetes Centre, the Rankin Court Clinic for Drug and Alcohol treatment and a bright green mural which honoured World Aids Day.

For another view of this now destroyed mural see the post "Monday Mural" on the fascinating blog of Sydney Eye

"Victoria st -The World AIDS Day Mural
between the Green Park Hotel and Rankin Court"
2010 oil on canvas 36 x 46cm
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By the time that I started this series of paintings, these services were in the process of being relocated to neighbouring buildings. By mid 2010, the breakthrough new cancer treatment Centre, the Kinghorn Centre, was already under construction.

 

Victoria st terraces-The Mural to honour 'World AIDS Day'

2009-10 Ink, gouache on paper 43 x 61cm

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The Kinghorn Centre, which will be opened in June 2012, is a joint Garvan Institute and St Vincent's Hospital project. It will pioneer a revolutionary method of customizing patient treatment instead of the previous one-drug-fits-all approach.
In early December 2011, cancer survivor Delta Goodrem, who is the patron of the Kinghorn Centre, spoke to assembled staff and construction workers at its launch .
See articles:"Delta Goodrem helps break ground on cancer centre" ; Article in Daily Telegraph

'A Corinthian column, St Vincents' De Lacy wing'

2011 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

My aim was to paint the exciting transition of the area from past to future. I painted all the works in this exhibition on site, sheltering under the awnings of the local restaurants and coffee shops, whose staff would keep an eye on my easel and belongings.

From the Green park Bandstand, I painted the classical facade of St Vincent’s heritage De Lacey wing framed by ferny canopies of lime green trees.

'An Ionic column, St Vincents' Public Hospital,

De Lacy wing' 2011 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Some of these buildings have heritage value, and all of them are regarded with genuine affection by the locals. Most of the architecture of this block has been compromised to a greater or lesser extent by tasteless modern extensions, but taken as a whole, they express the character of a colourful and unique area of Sydney street-life.
 

"Victoria st terraces-The RMO "
2009-10 oil on canvas 46 x 36cm
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The area is colourful and picturesque with a great diversity of buildings: from garish to subdued; from shabby to plush - and the characters who live, work and visit this area, rival the buildings for diversity and raffish charm.

"Victoria st terraces Nos 372-4 -

the Diabetes Centre & the RMO"

2009 oil on canvas 51x41cm.

SOLD
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Victoria Street is a peculiar mélange of architecture ranging from the charming, to the quirky, to the downright hideous.

Hole-in-the-wall coffee bars contrast with the sleek corporate steel and glass of the Victor Chang Institute in the background.

In between a few examples of faded glamour it's scruffy and noisy but the place feels busy and vibrant.

An oasis of calm in all this frenetic activity is Green Park.

 

"Victoria st terraces-Diabetes Australia"

2009 oil on canvas 31x31cm.

 SOLD
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English colonial grandeur rubs shoulders with crumbling terraces overgrown with vines and painted in brightly sub-tropical hues.

"Victoria st terraces-The RMO"

2009-10 Ink, gouache on paper 63 x 41cm

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My paintings of the buildings of this demolished block of Darlinghurst terraces honour the memories of the past, while celebrating the exciting possibilities of the future.
My exhibition will be held at the Xavier Art Space, Level 3 (which is the ground floor entry level) in the foyer of the St Vincent's Public Hospital. The Exhibition period is from 4 February - 8 March 2012, with the official opening on Tuesday night the 7th of February from 6-8pm. The works will be able to be viewed during the general hospital opening hours.
I am represented by the FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY mob: 0411 821550

  info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au
The Director, Frances Keevil will be curating and hanging the exhibition.

For more information about my paintings of the Victoria Street Terraces see my Urban Landscape Page