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

contact me

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

contact me

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

contact me

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

contact me

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

contact me

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

contact me

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

We like sheep - Waite and Bull Building 137 Pyrmont Street

'All we like sheep have gone astray' was one of the Advent, Christmas and Easter biblical texts to which Handel set his great oratorio Messiah. This chorus in F major is from Part II and the primary source of the libretto is Isaiah 53 :6.
My Granny, who had a beautiful soprano voice and sang in the Philharmonic for many years, would still get the giggles when singing "We like sheep".
She called it the national anthem of New Zealand.

'Ghost Sign on top of the Waite and Bull Building,
137 Pyrmont Street'
2013 oil on canvas 13 x 18cm
Enquiries

Australia once rode on the sheep's back.

This sheep hasn't exactly gone astray, but it looks a bit perturbed.
It is a surreal adornment to an otherwise solemn warehouse conversion on the corner of Pyrmont Street and the Pyrmont Bridge road.
Nobody seems to notice it except me.
The drivers and pedestrians are too busy negotiating the chaotic intersection to be able to look up.
This building at 137 Pyrmont street, originally called the FL Barker Woolstore, was designed by Arthur Blacket and completed in 1884.
Although the building was built for F.L. Barker and Co. it was actually owned by Sydney businessman John Taylor. A sign on the other side still reads "John Taylor 1893".
From 1895 until 1923 it was leased to wool brokers Hill Clark and Co., then from 1923 until 1951 the Store was a wool store owned and operated by Wool Brokers William Haughton and Company.
From 1951 until 1973 it was owned by the commercial printers Waite and Bull, and it has been commonly known as the Waite and Bull Building ever since. In 1973 the building was bought by Stocks and Holdings Pty Ltd.
In the early 1990s it was extensively refurbished by the architects Allan Jack and Cottier. It was then the headquarters of the City-West Development Corporation, who kick-started the redevelopment of Pyrmont. I remember visiting them to beg permission to be allowed to paint in areas that were being demolished.
City-West Development Corporation later morphed into the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, who now reigns over an empire of the bits of Sydney Harbour not controlled by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, Sydney Ports Corporation (now privatized) or the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust .
In comparison to other buildings of the time, Blacket's wool store had a simple elegance and dignity showing the influence of the architecture of the Chicago School. The manifesto of their leading architect Louis Sullivan had been 'form follows function' which meant using ornament sparingly and only if it is an integral part of the building's form.
The contrast between the sober dignity of the rest of the building and the sign makes the sheep swinging in a sling an even more startling image.
It was obviously considered to be very important, but I don't know whether this was part of Blacket's vision, or added by a later occupant. Most of Pyrmont's industrial heritage has been obliterated, but if you look carefully you can still find quirky and charming remnants of its industrial past.

In conjunction with the Frances Keevil Gallery, I'll have an exhibition of my Pyrmont paintings at the 2013 Pyrmont Festival at Pirrama Park.
This time my display will be extended to 2 days - Saturday 18th May and Sunday 19th May from 11am - 5pm.

FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
  mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Marine Art Exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

Pyrmont Paintings past and present
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
The photos of the display are courtesy of Frances Keevil, who also very kindly took time out from the gallery to hang and help me label the work. If not for Frances I'd probably still be there trying to cable tie canvases onto the security fence. It was still a nightmare to hang, and having to cable tie extremely valuable and historic paintings to a security fence is far from ideal.
The artworks are at risk of being damaged, and so was I. Due to the unfortunate timing of the Sydney half marathon being run on the morning of the event and the roads being closed as a consequence, there was very little time to unload my art and hang it.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I had brought 50 paintings on canvas and board for the exhibition. The largest was a 61 x 183cm canvas of a panorama of "Union Square" and the smallest was a tiny work on board of a detail of a window of the Terminus Hotel that at 9 x 13cm could fit in the palm of your hand.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows a couple of paintings of the CSR with some information sheets about my experiences creating them.
I also brought a small folio of works on paper, most of which had never been previously exhibited.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
Despite the rain we had a good audience. I met 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.
I am now trying to complete 6 commissions resulting from contacts made on this day.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows a corner of my stall. I'm glad I decided to add this to my allotted space on the security fence, as the stall gave a little shelter from the rain, and I wouldn't have been able to display my books or photos of the rest of my work otherwise.
But the stall and the fence for the daily cost $220, which Ned Kelly would have been ashamed of.
Pyrmont Point was once the site of no less than 5 of my studios. Had the earlier businesses and residents of Pyrmont been as greedy, I wouldn't have been able to create any of the paintings that the current residents enjoy.
Wood if I could...

Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I had made eleven small table easels in the weeks before as preparation for the event. Small paintings would get lost on the fencing next to larger works, and it freed up space for sheets of information about my series of Pyrmont paintings. The historical context is becoming more and more important as time goes by and the new residents seek information about their area.

Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I'm no carpenter - in fact I've very rarely picked up a hammer or screwdriver in my life before. I had bought a couple of little easels, but they were fairly useless. They tended to collapse or fall over easily - not a good look in a public exhibition. I couldn't find anything that would serve my purpose in the art shops they were either far too big or small, much too expensive, or had useless fiddly bits that would soon snap off or stab an expensive painting in the back.
I was sick of playing "Goldilocks" so I decided to try my hand at making what I needed despite a total lack of skill, knowledge, experience or the correct tools or materials.
I used some bits of scrap wood I found lying around the garden.
"Recycled" is probably too kind a word for it, "rubbish" is closer to the mark. It was a motley collection salvaged from a warped canvas stretcher,part of an old fence, a couple of garden stakes and a rotting pallet that a neighbour put out for council clean-up. But once I had sanded them and covered up the wonky bits with wood stain they scrubbed up quite well.
These "easels" are just simple A frame tripods. I didn't even attempt to make them with adjustable heights. which I knew was well beyond my almost non-existent woodworking abilities. Also most of my easels with adjustable heights have some major design flaw anyway that makes them hell to use.

These are simply to prop up a small to medium size painting so it can be seen with a bit of dignity at an event where there is no hanging system, and very limited time to prepare the display.

No two of them are the same size or shape. I practice saying "quirky rustic charm" a lot.

"Terminus Hotel" displayed on a Table easel

made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett

2010 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
But they do the job.
The red cedar woodstain especially suited the Terminus Hotel paintings, as it picked up the burnt siena of the ivy -covered bricks.

oil painting of "Gargoyle on spire of

Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney"

displayed on a Table easel made of recycled timber

2009 oil on board 25 x 20cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows my painting of "Gargoyle on spire of Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney" displayed on a table easel that I made from parts of a shabby old frame that had warped and had to be removed. Unfortunately I discovered at the festival that the white paint blistered in the rain, so I have now taken it apart, sanded it back and given it a coat of the same red cedar wood stain so it now matches the others.
For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant   A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2 

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." — Jonathan Swift

The next Pyrmont Festival of Food Wine and Art will be held 11am - 5pm on Sunday 20th May at Pirrama Park, the old Water Police site.
I will exhibit a selection of my Pyrmont canvases painted from the early 1980s - 2012. Pyrmont has changed beyond recognition from the early 1980s, from an almost deserted industrial ghost town to a media, retail and entertainment hub.
I painted 'en plein air' and was 'Artist in Residence' at many locations including 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. Most of my paintings were created on sites that were off-limits to the public.
However, sometimes I set up my easel by the side of the road - or even right in the middle of the road. There were few passers-by and almost no traffic. I have returned to paint scenes that I last painted a couple of decades ago to compare and contrast the past with the present.
On Harris Street a handful of derelict buildings still rub shoulders with the clean sharp angles and acidic colours of Jacksons Landing.
The "Terminus Hotel" on the western corner of Harris and John Street has become a pin-up for lovers of urban decay.
Its burnt sienna brickwork and emerald green doors mock the tastefully muted hues and expensive renovations of the up market "Point Hotel" on the other side of the road. This vine encrusted ex-pub proudly flaunts an air of seedy glamour, and stories about its scurrilous past and its mysterious closure have become part of the local mythology. It is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket and doesn't care who knows it.

'Old bakery corner of John and Harris St' 2012
oil on board 35 x 28cm.
Enquiries
However the opposite corner of Harris and John Street has an equally haunting ruin which has been gently mouldering away for at least as long as its more spectacular neighbour.
This building on the corner of Harris and John Street was once a bakery, and then a typical Greek milk bar. The proprietors used to make their own icecream in the traditional way - twirling it around on a stick.
They had one of those old-fashioned football machines operated by a handle, with rows of wooden "players" kicking a ball. It would have pre-dated the pinball machines by at least a decade.
I have painted in Pyrmont and Ultimo for over 30 years now, but I don't actually remember when this ceased to be a thriving business.
If it ever really thrived.

"Pyrmont streetscape : Anzac Bridge from the corner

of John, Pyrmont and Point streets" 1994

oil on canvas paper 100 x 75cm
Enquiries 

ANZAC Bridge from John st 1994 oil 91x31cm

PRIVATE COLLECTION SYDNEY
SOLD
Enquiries  

Next door to the ex-milkbar is "Chicks on Harris" ("chicks" in this context refers to fast food- I'm not sure that the owners thought through the implications of their name as a number of establishments in this area in the past have had chequered reputations).

Black Dog (old bakery from John St)' 2012
oil on board 31 x 25cm
Enquiries 

The old milkbar had already been boarded up for some time, as there were archaeologically interesting layers of tatty posters layered on top of the boards which sealed the doors - a tradition that has continued to this day.

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