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
Enquiries 
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 

Painting the Shirley Smith at Moores Wharf

Although I’d been Artist in Residence’ at the East Darling Harbour Wharves, and even in the Harbour Control Tower for almost a decade, it wasn’t until July 2011 that I was invited to become Artist in Residence’ at Moore’s Wharf, the Sydney HQ of Sydney Ports Corporation.

MW 1'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available for sale
The East Darling Harbour Wharves finally closed in October 2007.
I managed to keep access to the wharves during the demolition of the wharves & even during the early stages of the construction on Barangaroo.
I even retained occasional access to the Harbour Control Tower after April 2011 when it ceased to be used for maritime operations by Sydney Ports Corporation.

MW 1'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available for sale
Moore’s Wharf is a handsome 3 storey sandstone warehouse that was originally built in the 1830s by convict labour.
There are still some convict marks, such as arrows on some of the sandstone blocks which were quarried locally.
The surrounding suburb, Millers Point, is built on a ridge of yellowblock sandstone that is of high quality, although not quite up to the standard of the famous Pyrmont yellowblock.
Bizarrely, the entire building was moved stone by stone, a few hundred metres to its existing position, when the adjoining wharves were extended and redeveloped for containerization.

MW 1'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available for sale
In front of Moore’s Wharf, Sydney Ports Corporation has two highly visible, verging on garish, bright scarlet and yellow firefighting tugs, the ‘Shirley Smith’, and the ‘Ted Noffs’. They are part of a fleet of emergency response vessels and specialised equipment used for fire-fighting, oil spill response, salvage and providing assistance to stricken vessels.
The marine operations teams work closely with Fire and Rescue NSW to prepare for fighting fires which may not be accessible to the fire teams by land.


MW 1'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Available for sale
You can see the crew in the background next to the Shirley Smith.
The weird crumpled red and black object, that looks slightly like a giant version of the sort of caterpillars found on citrus trees is a boom to enclose oil spills and similar hazards. Booms are kept near the boat, so they can be rapidly deployed. My first painting as ‘Artist in Residence’ at Moores Wharf was of a classic everyday task - the marine operations team cleaning one of the recently deployed booms.

MW 1'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available for sale

Shirley Smith was built in 1987 and normally based in Port Jackson, whereas the ‘Ted Noffs’ is usually stationed at Port Botany, although occasionally both are there when I've been painting. They are manned 24/7, 365 days a year. They each have a capacity for delivering 16,000 litres of water per minute. As well as emergency response to fires, this water spray is also used for spectacular displays during celebrations such as New Year’s Eve, and to welcome the ‘maiden call’ of a ship into Port Jackson.
The tug was named in honour of Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl), an Aboriginal woman who dedicated her life to welfare services.


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Boat at Goat

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Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island