2024 Pyrmont Festival- paintings of Pyrmont, past and present

 

The 12th anniversary of the Pyrmont Festival of Wine Food and Art,

 will be held 11am - 5pm on  Saturday and Sunday 18th and 19th May 2024 in Pirrama Park at the northern end of the Pyrmont Peninsula.  

I'll exhibit a selection of artworks painted 'en plein air' in Pyrmont and Ultimo from the early 1980s  until now. 

Many of the works I'll exhibit were painted within a couple of hundred metres from the Festival site, and many have never been exhibited in public.

A new major work which will be featured is an enormous panorama painted from the James Watkinson Reserve in front of Ways Terrace (aka the Point st Flats)

P800 Sydney Harbour from Pyrmont 2023 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

On the left of this canvas is Jones Bay Wharf, once home to a motley collection of waterfront industries, & now the upmarket function centre Doltone House. In the background, the controversial Barangaroo Headland Park has replaced the former East Darling Harbour Wharves/Hungry Mile. On the right, the handsome Federation architecture of the Royal Edward Victualling Yards (aka "REVY") still dominates Darling Island, but REVY 3 is now an apartment block, and Google has taken over the former headquarters of the Naval Support Command.  On the road below, the rooftops of the former Arrow Dive buildings are barely visible beneath the canopy of the Port Jackson Figtrees.

This painting is a sequel to a canvas I painted close to this viewpoint, 35 years ago in 1989, when Pyrmont was a very different place to how it is today. This 1989 painting is on the cover of my book of my Pyrmont paintings.

"Pyrmont- A History in paintings" by Jane Bennett

While I sold the 1989 painting several years ago, the book will be available for sale during the festival.

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.

Not the Writers Festival- Exhibition of Pyrmont Paintings by Jane Bennett at 2013 Pyrmont Festival

I exhibited these historic paintings of Pyrmont at the 2013 Pyrmont festival in conjunction with the Frances Keevil Gallery

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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The weather couldn't have been better for the 2013 Pyrmont Festival. A couple of the calmest, sunniest autumn days I've ever experienced in Sydney.

This festival is held on the former Water-Police site, where I used to have several studios during the late 1980s - mid 1990s.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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This time the festival in Pirrama Park was for the whole weekend, which gave many more people a chance to see my exhibition.

 I had brought 55 paintings on canvas and board for the exhibition. The largest was the 61 x 183cm canvas of a panorama of "Union Square" and the smallest was a tiny canvas of a strange little sign on top of the former F.L. Barker/Waite and Bull woolstore on the corner of Pyrmont Street and Pyrmont Bridge Road.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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This year I had written 2 small booklets about my paintings and drawings of Pyrmont. The text was partly based on some of the posts in this blog.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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I printed some prototype copies as an experiment, intending to display them at the festival. I partly wanted people to be able to read the text as, even with the help given to me by  my gallerist Frances Keevil I can't always manage to talk to everyone who wants to know something about a particular painting. My other goal was to get some feedback. 

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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One of these booklets, "Pyrmont - Shadows of the Past" was about my charcoal, ink and gouache drawings of Pyrmont  in a simple, classic black and white format. 

The other booklet "Pyrmont Paintings" displayed the paintings to great advantage on a dark blue background. but unfortunately this choice made the black text almost invisible. The printer service had offered a very limited choice of templates, fonts and colours. I had used them because I had been flat out painting and exhibiting since the beginning of this year and had very little time or energy left to prepare for the Pyrmont Festival. The booklets were an afterthought. I wrote and designed them both in a single day to meet the deadline for a discount printing deal.

In a way, this was good. I have a tendency to perfectionism, and faced with limitless choice and no deadline I can become paralyzed with fear. I thought that I needed to write something, anything at all, however lame, and then improve it.

I wasn't actually intending to sell them at all. I gave copies to the people who bought paintings, or were seriously interested in purchasing. I also gave a couple to the gallery so that we could . I was stunned at the number of people who flatly insisted on paying $10, $12, $15 or even $20 for a booklet! I tried to insist that they were free, as they were just experiments. Apart from a misplaced comma and a couple of oddly proportioned margins the black and white booklet looked very elegant, but the beautiful blue background of the painting book had unfortunately made the writing completely illegible and there were a couple of font discrepancies. Trying to finish the 2nd booklet by the midnight deadline had nearly sent me cross-eyed.

I pointed out the errors, but it didn't seem to faze anyone; they still insisted on paying for them! 

We sold over 50 booklets, and we weren't actually even trying to sell them at all!

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

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I only have one of each left now, and I'd better hang on to them as I'd like to have them in front of me when I finally sit down with the gallery's designer and plan a better publication.

So, it's not yet the Writer's Festival, and I'm not an author.

However the reaction has given me a great deal of confidence. People have been nagging me for years to write about my paintings, but now I know that they are serious.

"Decisions, decisions... which one should I buy?"

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival

contact me

As well as my unexpected excursion into literature, it was a very interesting and successful event on a number of different levels.

I reconnected with lots of people who once lived or worked in Pyrmont as well as many of the new residents of Jacksons Landing and the apartments on top of Pyrmont Point.
There were several sales and I am now preparing to paint an extremely large and prestigious commission resulting from a contact made on these 2 days.
Paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett in Pirrama Park

Related posts

Painting Pyrmont - Sydney Living Museums

We like sheep - Waite and Bull Building


Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 6

Pyrmont paintings past and present- My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum

I started my series of Pyrmont paintings over 30 years ago and I will still paint in Pyrmont occasionally.

If you enjoy my Pyrmont paintings please visit the Frances Keevil Gallery or contact me