Work in progress on the easel
"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
As 'Artist in Residence', I'm painting the chimney stacks from inside the Boiler House of the White Bay Power Station.
It's so dark inside that it is difficult to take photos and I've never really learned how to use the flash properly.
Work in progress on the easel
"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
Painting inside the Boiler House is a strange experience.
I balanced the exterior space revealed by the open rusting door with the muted light coming through the window.
Under the window, sheets of rusting corrugated iron are also letting in some light as they are disintegrating at the edges and pierced with holes.
The parallel vertical lines of the window sheeting contrast with the horizontal pattern of the iron. The severe geometry is interrupted by a mad little squiggle of barbed wire perches on top of the corrugated iron sheeting with a baroque flourish.
"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
The White Bay Power Station has had many strange uses in its time.
After its official closure in the early 1980s, it had a strange afterlife as the site of mysterious scientific experiments for several years. There was a joint venture between the CSIRO and the University of Sydney and possibly other entities. I don't know exactly what it was all about, but it involved the use of thegiant turbines in the now defunct Turbine Hall. 3 out of 4 of them have since been removed, hopefully after the experiments came to a satisfactory conclusion.
This vast cavernous room is now about absence rather than presence. 
WBPS82 'Interior of Boiler House White Bay Power Station'
2016 ink charcoal gouache on paper 106 x 121cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
It does, however, rejoice in the world's largest fishbone fern which reaches through the infinite void towards the floor from the parrot beak of one of the huge coal hoppers.
It's a bit hard to tell which way up this huge drawing should be. It's sort of reverse vertigo - I feel dizzy from looking up, rather than down!
In later years the interior has frequently been used as a location for films, especially science fiction - the 'Matrix' especially springs to mind.
I know exactly what the future is going to look like - the interior of the White Bay Power Station!
The real future of the White Bay Power Station itself is as yet unknown. It is in limbo, waiting for a purpose, in search of another afterlife.
Related posts
Tower of power
Power House
Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 2
Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station
Steady Rest
Rust Bucket
Industrial Cathedral
"Industrial Cathedral" charcoal on paper 131 x 131 cm Jane Bennett. Finalist in 1998 Dobell Drawing Prize Art Gallery of NSW Finalist 1998 Blake Prize Winner 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize
About Me
- Jane Bennett Artist
- Sydney, NSW, Australia
- I'm an Industrial Heritage Artist who paints "en plein air".If it's damaged, derelict, doomed and about to disappear, I'll be there to paint it.
Showing posts with label Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. Show all posts
Friday 8 July 2011
White Bay Power Station : Inside Out
Thursday 7 July 2011
Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2
Back to front
Many local artists have painted the front facade of White Bay Power Station, but very few people have had access to the back or the interior, except on the rare open days.
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Painting at the back of the White Bay Power Station
"White Bay Power Station from the back"
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm |
So this is a post about the hidden side of the White Bay Power Station.
Beside the closest chimney nestle some rows of old sandstone blocks.
Beside the closest chimney nestle some rows of old sandstone blocks.
They are leftovers from the alteration of the approaches to the old Pyrmont bridge.
The old Pyrmont Bridge was closed to all but pedestrian traffic by about 1979, as a prelude to the redevelopment of Darling Harbour from a railway goods yard to the its current state of a soul-less and seedy tourist trap and entertainment precinct.
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Painting at the back of the White Bay Power Station
"White Bay Power Station from the back"
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm |
Sunset at the back of the White Bay Power Station. It was a sunny day, but the wind chill and sitting in the gigantic shadow cast by the Boilerhouse made this a three tracksuit day. I had to wear so many layers that I could barely move my arms!
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The almost finished painting: "White Bay Power Station from the back" 2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm |
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
Back in the 1980's, I painted the White Bay Power Station while it was still operational.
In the 1990's, while the Pyrmont Power Station and Balmain Power Station were in the process of being demolished, I returned to the area to paint the Unilever site, the White Bay Hotel and the Goods Yard. While the Anzac Bridge was being constructed, I painted birds-eye views of the site from the summit of the western pylon. In 2000, the ownership of the site passed from Pacific Power to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). From 2002 - 2004 I painted exterior views of the Boiler House and monumental interiors of the Turbine Hall, one of which was acquired by the Mitchell Library, State Library of N.S.W. for their collection.
From 2008 I have been painting this magnificent relic from the wharves of Glebe Island and White Bay.
Now I've returned to the site itself as 'Artist in Residence'.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
The bright red belongs to some containers which are full of debris from some of SHFA's other sites. Bizarrely, one of these containers has been decorated with paintings of butterflies.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
This canvas was painted close to the railway corridor next to the old ash handling yard to the south east of the site.
I have chosen to explore the slightly less glamorous aspect of the site as the first paintings of my long awaited return to the site, rather than the all too familiar view from Mullens Street.
Every half baked photographer and his dog has an image or two of the iconic chimney stacks from the northern Balmain side. This is scarcely a challenge - far too easy. I know this building very well, inside and out, and have painted it and the surrounding area over the past 3 decades.
My paintings show the White Bay Power Station's subtler charms.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW |
In the foreground is the space where the 2nd Boiler House, built on the southern side in 1927, and demolished from 1975-1976.
Now this space is used for leftover debris from the clearing of Ballast Point, a former Caltex fuel depot, now a public park. I remember painting some of these relics on location at Ballast Point before its transformation in 2004-5.
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Starting a new canvas on the site of the now demolished Boiler House 2, White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW The
imposing facade, even from the back has a stern grandeur and dignity
found in castles and forts. The dramatic shadow cast by this monolith is
occasionally broken by glints of sunlight that touch weeds now
infesting the vacant upper south yard, once home to the White Bay Hotel
which finally succumbed to a mysterious fire in 2009. |
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| "White Bay Power Station from the back 1" 2011 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm Available for sale |
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| "White Bay Power Station from the back 2" 2011 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm Available for sale |
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Related posts
Rust Bucket
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