Painting Sydney Harbour in the footsteps of Turner

All this winter I've felt something's been lacking.

Vivid.

Due to Covid-19 it couldn't be held this year, and for all I know New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrations may not be held in the foreseeable future either.

I've often mocked Sydney for valuing style over substance, but I have to confess that I like a mindlessly pretty display of fairy lights against a harbour view as much as anyone.

So for anyone getting withdrawal symptoms, here's one on the easel of my deck gallery.

U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale
This canvas of the burning ship against a backdrop of fireworks illuminating the Sydney Harbour Bridge was painted in the studio from a series of quick gouache studies that I did on New Year's Eve 2003, well over a decade before Vivid was ever thought of. I regard this as a sort of 'proto-Vivid'.
It added a new dimension to the usual fireworks and was a startling sight if you weren't aware that it was in fact a special effect, and not a tragic fire on board the 'James Craig'.
The first time I saw it, like hundreds, possibly thousands of others, I rang 000 in a panic to report it. You could almost hear the person from Emergency Services rolling their eyes, as they assured me that it was just a special effect, that , no, the James Craig was just fine, and thanked me for my misplaced concern.
The Fireship apparently commemorated an early 19th century convict ship that had caught fire, and in the weeks after, during the Sydney Festival, there was a 'son et lumiere' show every night for a couple of weeks. I forget the details and the story, and frankly I think everyone else did as well. The images of the fire reflected in the water were all the spectators really were interested in, and the story seemed just a flimsy excuse.
As I painted some quick sketches in gouache and watercolour, I was glad that i'd spent so much of my 1996 Marten Bequest Traveling Art Scholarship holed up in the Print and Drawing Room of the Clore Gallery (the section of the Tate Gallery devoted to the work of Turner, obsessively painting studies of the many fabulous Turner watercolours in their collection. The Petworth series and the burning of the Houses of Parliament were my favourites. I became so good at painting them that the staff became slightly alarmed, and demanded that I sign my studies on the back so that I wouldn't be able to do a bit of a 'switcheroo' while their backs were turned! I took this as a sort of a backhanded compliment, but my goal wasn't to just mindlessly copy, but to try to conquer the mystery of painting sea,sky, storm, night and fire. How to make the intangible, tangible.
When I returned from my Traveling Art Scholarship, I actually exhibited some of these in a couple of exhibitions "The Grand Tour" and "In the Footsteps of the Masters" that acted like a sort of debriefing - a transition phase from the scholarship to the routine of regular commercial exhibitions.
I'd seen a lot of amazing art, and learnt a lot, but how was I going to incorporate this into what I would paint on my return?

U118 Fireship under the Bridge
oil on canvas 2003 61 x 91cm
Available for sale
Painting the Fireship was a chance to give a virtuoso display of layers of translucent glazes of breathtakingly expensive and exotic colours such as Aureolin, Rose Madder and Alizarin Crimson. These aren't the sort of colours that usually get a work out during plein air painting.
However, as I started to paint lost trades and dying industries, I would get more and more frequent opportunities to use them. Subjects like the Oxycutter at William Wallbank and Sons, or the Blacksmiths at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops provided further connections to the lost world of the Early Industrial Revolution that Turner and his predecessors de Loutherbourg and Joseph Wright of Derby immortalized. The major difference is that these artists were painting the founding of this era - I'm painting its demise.

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Painting Spirit of Tasmania in drydock Garden Island

Today's painting on the deck shows a plein air painting of the Spirit of Tasmania 1 in Captain Cook drydock, Garden Island.


GI 5 'Spirit of Tasmania 1 in Captain Cook drydock'
2013 oil on canvas 45 x 92cm

It was an amazing experience to watch the whole operation of drydocking and I was so lucky to be able to paint it from the floor of the drydock, with the immense bulk of the ship looming up above me.

On this occasion the Spirit of Tasmania 1 was in drydock for about 3 weeks between July and August 2013.

Every sea-going vessel has to undergo this maintenance process twice within a period of 5 years.

GI 5 'Spirit of Tasmania 1 in Captain Cook drydock'
2013 oil on canvas 45 x 92cm

When the ship arrives at the dock, it has to be positioned accurately so that when the water is pumped out it will rest exactly on the blocks at the bottom of the dock.

Once the ship is in position, the entrance to the dock is closed using a watertight gate, known as a caisson, sealing the ship off from the rest of the harbour.

The time from when the stern of the ship first touches the blocks, to when the full weight of the ship is bourne by the blocks is the most crucial and potentially dangerous period in the entire operation.

The ship must rest on an even keel and not be lopsided or tilting down at one end.

Even 1 metre off the sender line could result in the ship toppling over.

Care also must be taken that the ship doesn't refloat after it is resting on the blocks.

When the ship is finally resting on the blocks it is called "Taking the blocks" and after all the water has been pumped out of the dock, then the inspection, cleaning and repairs can be carried out.

GI 11 'Captain Cook drydock Garden Island'

2013 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

An awe-inspiring 280 million litres of water had to be pumped out of the Captain Cook graving dock before work on the ship can begin.

It is a hypnotic sight to watch the water slowly drain over a period of several hours.

This is a painting of the southern end of the dock, and inside the walls you can see the black depth indicators pointing like giant rulers into the bottom of the dock.

Plein air oil painting  of Spirit of Tasmania 1
in Garden Island Drydock

Dry dock walls are built on a heroic scale. They need to resist the enormous hydrostatic forces unleashed when the dock is being dewatered.

They reminded me of the monumental architecture of lost ancient civilizations such as the Egyptian, Mesopotamian or Aztec.

GI 5B 'Fabulous flying forklift in Captain Cook drydock'
2013 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm

Heavy machinery such as forklifts, cranes and scissor lifts were then lowered onto the dock floor by the two cranes on either side of the dock.
In my largest canvas you can see no fewer than 8 cranes, as well as 2 portaloos!
It was a very long walk up to the surface!

The first major job was to wash the slime off the outer shell plating with high pressure waterjets. Although this certainly does make the ship look much prettier, the real reason is that it helps reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Then the outer shell plating is coated with anti- corrosive paint, as seawater takes an enormous toll on any surface exposed to it. Any parts of the ship that will be submerged are then painted with a coat of anti-fouling paint.

GI 5A 'Workmen on Spirit of Tasmania 3
in Captain Cook drydock'
2013 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm 

Propellor blades, rudders, underwater valves, cathodic protection systems, anchors and cables must be inspected for corrosion and cracks.

There was also extensive work on the interior and the stern doors.

GI 7 'Andre on bridge of Spirit of Tasmania 1
in Captain Cook drydock'
2013 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

I included many of the contracters in my series of paintings. This, painted from the bridge of the ship also shows the soon to be demolished Hammerhead Crane set against the scenic backdrop of  the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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Royal Edward Victualling Yards (REVY), Darling Island, Pyrmont

Today's painting on the deck shows a small panorama of Sydney Harbour with a cargo ship berthed at the East Darling Harbour Wharves in the background. The strange looking building in the centre surrounded by piles of timber is the REVY C building on Darling Island. I painted it in the early 1990s from Ways Terrace.

 

 

 

P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'

1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

Available for sale

On Darling Island, nothing is now left of the timber and shipbuilding yards. Today the water’s edge bristles with new apartment blocks gazing over sheltered waters. Yet beneath the silvery surface lies a hidden history.

The Royal Edward Victualling Yard, ( REVY A,B & C), was built between 1890 and 1911, by the revered Government architect Walter Liberty Vernon in the Federation Free style.

They were some of the last working buildings on the Pyrmont waterfront and had rivettingly odd architecture. Revy A and B  consisted of a 5 storey and a 6 storey pair of large red brick warehouses set at right angles to each other and linked by a square central  water reservoir tower. They were built in a flamboyant neo-Gothic style which reminded me irresistibly of the Bargello in Florence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'
1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

Available for sale

Revy C is a narrow, skinny, rather ungainly eight-storey, red brick Federation Warehouse, and still the tallest structure on Darling Island.  It had a rusticated ashlar bluestone ground floor, and a riveted truss jib crane facing Jones Bay Wharf. Its 4 large lift towers on the roof always reminded me of the crenellations on top of medieval castles.
Early fire fighting relied on steam pumped water pressure which could only reach up to a maximum of 2 storeys. So the set of external steel fire stairs at either end were a very practical solution to this problem, even though I used to curse them for being a perspective nightmare to paint.

 

 

P12B REVY 3 from Jones Bay Wharf with 'Nederburg'
1990 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm
SOLD
Enquiries about other paintings of Darling Island
Revy's original purpose became obsolete due to the increasing size of cargo ships and the introduction of container shipping.
The painting above shows the 'Nederburg' one of the last cargo ships docking at the Pier 19/20/21 (now known as Jones Bay Wharf) opposite Revy C.
During the 1980s REVY C was remodelled for the Defence Science and Technology Organization.















P12 REVY from Jones Bay Road
1990 oil on paper 25.5 x 31 cm
Available for sale

This small oil study shows the timber yard on the other side to the previous painting.

In 1994, REVY A and B were renovated for Naval Support Command , and I was commissioned to paint 3 huge paintings for their foyer.

They could be seen from Jones Bay Road until 2005 when Channel 7 moved in. Now these paintings are on Spectacle Island, where unfortunately they can't be seen by the public.

REVY C was vacant from 2005 until its recent redevelopment for apartments.

 

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My page of Pyrmont paintings 

 

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 

 

Uptown Festival 2011

Barangaroo - tabula rasa

Today's painting on the deck is a panorama painted on the East Darling Harbour Wharves. It includes 2 of my former studios - the Harbour Control Tower and Moore's Wharf.

The now demolished Harbour Control Tower dominates the empty wharf. A row of pink terraces perch on top of the golden sandstone escarpment
while the Sydney Harbour Bridge can be glimpsed behind Moore's Wharf, a handsome heritage sandstone building housing the Sydney Ports Corporation.

The cute little federation building on the left is a Federation era sewage pumping station. It has since been cleaned up and relocated.

BAR60 'Barangaroo north -
The Harbour Tower,
escarpment and Moore's Wharf 2'
2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm

This canvas was painted just after the wharves had been cleared of all their maritime infrastructure, and just before work began on the construction of the Barangaroo Headland Park that replaced it.
It shows a place in a state of limbo.
I've included a couple of photos of this and a couple of other canvases as works in progress, to show some of the process involved in their creation.
I had to lug a french box easel, paint, brushes, medium, canvases, a couple of tables, a chair, and my lunch, packed inside trolley luggage. After doing this for several decades, I've become quite fit and strong!

Plein air oil painting behind the barrier
on the East Darling Harbour Wharves
Showing this canvas as a work in progress
with my trolley luggage, table, chair, french box easel,
paints, brushes and other equipment.

Barangaroo is a paradox.
The area now known as Barangaroo was off limits to the public for over a hundred years but was the central core of Sydney's economy. Necessary, yet ignored ; in full view yet strangely invisible.

Now it is centre stage, hotly debated and fought over, yet still unknown to the vast majority of Sydney.
Once a despised slum - now prime waterfront. Only the fashion has changed...

BAR60 'Barangaroo north -
The Harbour Tower,
escarpment and Moore's Wharf 2'
2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm

It had a complex. fascinating multi-layered history but has been treated as though it is tabula rasa - a blank canvas for architects to impose their will upon.

Nearly 200 years of maritime heritage disappeared with barely a token gesture to its previous existence.

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In the shadow of the Bridge -Night Observatory Hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a nocturne painted from Observatory Hill.

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available
I've often painted the Rocks and Millers Point from this vantage point.
When I used to teach art classes, I'd give everyone a map of the best spots to sit so they could avoid having to include the Blues Point Tower!

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available

This view looks straight down Lower Fort Street where I have also frequently painted the heritage terraces, the Garrison church, the Harbourview and 'Hero of Waterloo' hotels.

Some of this collection are on my Miller's Point page in this blog.

It's a postcard perfect Sydney Harbour scene during the day. but at night the shadows make it evocative and mysterious.
The tales from the rowdy and sometimes sinister era of the Rocks 'Push' don't seem to be quite as distant at night!

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm

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