Sydney Sandstone - Painting the Lands Department building

The Lands Department building 22-33 Bridge Street Sydney, is one of the most outstanding surviving Victorian buildings in Sydney. The building had been used continuously for the purpose which it was designed for - as the administrative head office of Department of Lands.
Unfortunately, this will soon change.
I don't know whether all the original features which makes this building so wonderful will be retained, but I thought that I should attempt to paint it while it is still in its original state.
I managed to set up my easel in Macquarie Place Park, directly opposite the corner of Bridge and Gresham street.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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James Barnet was the architect mostly responsible for the design of the Lands Department building, although Walter Liberty Vernon and William Edmund Kemp also made contributions.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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The foundation stone was laid in 1876 by the Minister of Lands and it was completed in 1893. The Renaissance Revival Style facades are of dressed Pyrmont sandstone

The ground, first, and second floors have pilasters and entablatures of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders respectively, each standing on appropriate pedestals.  

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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A large copper dome, 55' square at the base, but changing to an octagon at the top, rises above the Bridge Street facade.
The clock tower has a copper onion-shaped dome which was allegedly influenced by the shape of the water carafe of Sir Henry Parkes.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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The best of Classical tradition was fused with the most cutting edge technology for the period. Heating, lighting, ventilation and a system of communication involving speaking through tubes and operating pneumatic bells was incorporated in the design.

Builder John Young introduced one of Sydney’s first reinforced-concrete floor slabs, with concrete vaults to improve fire resistance.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
 2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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There are 12 niches on each facade, which were all intended to be filled with sculptures of explorers or legislators who made a major contribution to the settlement of the nation.

Although 48 men were nominated by the architect as being suitable subjects, most were rejected and only 23 statues were commissioned, leaving 25 niches unfilled. 

In 2010-11 a new statue of colonial surveyor James Meehan (1774-1826) was created and placed in an empty niche on corner of Loftus/Bent Streets.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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In my painting the statue of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks is on the left, and the statue of the explorer Sturt on the right.

U235'Statues of Explorers', Lands Department
2015 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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In the late 1980s the building was earmarked by the NSW Governnment as one of the potential sites for conversion into a casino.
To protect the building from unsympathetic development, a Permanent Conservation Order was passed by the NSW Heritage Council. 
However, although it is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in Australia, it still faces an uncertain future.
Both Sydney’s historic
The hotel will open in 2021 after the government employees finally leave in 2018.

Sydney sandstones to become luxury hotel

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Under the Hammer

Before the Navy finally booted me off Garden Island, I made sure that I tackled some large scale drawings
Since 2007, due to real or perceived safety issues, temporary catch platforms have been suspended from the long arm and short arm jibs. They spoil the line, but apparently provide access to allow condition inspections to be performed safely.
At first glance, it looks as though the Hammerhead Crane has 5 legs.
However, one of these "legs" is a lift to give access from the wharf to the slew ring level (seen in the centre at the top of my drawing). As the crane is 61m high, this wasn't an idle luxury.
Unfortunately this lift has been out of operation since 1998.

While drawing this, I met probably the last person to have ever used the lift. He was escorting a group of photographers to the top, and had pressed the lift button when he heard a muffled explosion, and then found his hands were black with graphite.

He said that he was lucky and got off lightly. I think he was right.

'Under the Hammerhead Crane' 2014
ink, pastel, charcoal,graphite on paper 140 x 110cm
WINNER : 2014 DRAWING PRIZE ROYAL EASTER SHOW
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My hands were also black with graphite after creating this enormous drawing.
I stood directly underneath and looked up into the top of the soaring structure.
By looking up I sought to capture the Burke and Longinus concept of the "sublime", with its overtones of awe, terror and vertigo, rather than the picturesque aspect of the typical "hammerhead" profile, a view familiar from Mrs Macquarie's Chair opposite.
The girders were silhouetted against the open sky; the safety nets resembling fan vaulting in a ruined Gothic abbey.

While creating this enormous drawing, I also remembered Piranesi's devastating images of Roman ruins, dangerously broken and overgrown amid the wreckage of a dead civilization.

 GIHC7 'Under the Hammerhead Crane'
2014 ink pastel charcoal on paper 76 x 56cm

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I am an artist and historian, born into a time and place where only sport and business are valued. Drawing on the ruins of the industrial past , walking under rusty girders in the shadow of toppled giants.

Every ruin is implicitly a reminder that all things are destined for oblivion.

The Hammerhead Crane was built to demonstrate industrial might and the march of progress.

Even as a victim of the slow death of de-industrialization, it retains a poignant grandeur.

This was exhibited in my solo show "Under the Hammer" at the Frances Keevil Gallery from November 18th - December 7th 2014.

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Rust never sleeps : Painting the Hammerhead Crane Part 2

Starting to paint my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm
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The Hammerhead Crane was constructed between 1944 – 1951 as part of a major development of the Garden Island naval facilities that also included the Captain Cook graving dock.
It was originally intended to serve the ships of both the British and Australian Navies.
 The British Navy had access to the 250 ton Hammerhead Crane at Singapore until 1942. When Singapore fell, this crane was destroyed, but its design and steelwork construction drawings were reused for the Garden Island crane.

Starting to paint my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm
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The crane designer was Sir William Arrol Co Ltd of Glasgow, with Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners of London as consultants.
The 250 ton crane was the largest size of the 18 Arrol Titans constructed from 1910 to 1960. The Garden Island Hammerhead Crane was one of the six 250 ton Arrol Titans.

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm
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Between 1989 – 1991  the crane capacity was reduced and inspections and repairs were carried out.
In 1995 Jigger hoist was withdrawn from service due to runway corrosion.
1996 seems to have been the last known date of operation.

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm Enquiries

Large riveted structures have an inherent problem.
They have, by the nature of their construction, many inaccessible surfaces which can't be completely sealed against water and are therefore prone to corrosion.

Work in progress on the easel

"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 

2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

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This problem was well understood by the designers of the Hammerhead.
Their specifications required that all surfaces to be brought together should be painted with two coats of red lead in boiled linseed oil as a corrosion protective coating, before fit up and riveting. The surfaces were supposed to be brought together while the 2nd paint layer was still wet.
This was the normal procedure to limit corrosion on inaccessible surfaces.

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

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However, according to the Hammerhead Crane report by Godden Mackay Logan an analysis of the paint layers is as follows:
Substrate: Dark Brown Mill Scale on Steel
First paint layer: Yellow Zinc Chromate Primer
Second Paint Layer: Light Grey Aluminium Top-Coat
Third Paint Layer: Dark Orange Red Lead Primer
Fourth Paint Layer: Grey Alkyd MIO

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

Enquiries

A Zinc Chromate primer as well as a second coat of grey aluminium paint lie underneath the layer of red lead over most of the crane. 

This was completely contrary to the original specifications of the designers. And with good reason.

Red lead is intended for direct application to ferrous substrates, so it is of limited value when applied over existing paint. 

The National Paints product sheet says that red lead primers are " not suitable for over coating of zinc primed steel".

So there.

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm
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Red lead/Lead tetraoxide (Formula: Pb3O4) is a bright red, heavy, water and alcohol insoluble, poisonous compound and has been used as a pigment since the time of the Roman empire. It was originally known as minium, after the Minius River in northwest Spain where it was first mined. Red lead was usually obtained as a powder by heating the yellow lead ore known as litharge. In the medieval period it was used as a pigment in the production of illuminated manuscripts, and gave its name to the miniature.

In combination with linseed oil, red lead is incomparably useful as a thick, long-lasting anti-corrosive paint.

However red lead  is also notoriously and horribly toxic. 

But then, so is zinc chromate.

Painting my canvas of the 
"Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island" 
2014 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

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Every now and then I can see a sallow greenish yellow hue seeping mockingly through the apparently uniform grey top coat. 

What were they thinking when they applied the zinc chromate primer? 

The combination of a zinc based primer and aluminium based 2nd coat makes me suspect that the first painters of the Hammerhead were attempting a "zinc-alume" solution. The theory is that aluminium and zinc oxides will migrate to a scratched surface and provide enhanced corrosion protection. 

In practice, it didn't work.

GIHC6 ' Looking up at the Hammerhead Crane'
2014 oil on paper 12 x 12cm
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There are large areas of breakdown and surface corrosion occurring on the Hammerhead Crane where the paint layers have failed.
Rusting through the paint due to corroding millscale is also common.

Rust is a common metaphor, even a cliche, for slow decay. It gradually but thoroughly corrupts robust iron and steel metal into a soft crumbling powder.
In my paintings, I am grateful for the patches of rust. They add a dash of much needed warmth and texture to contrast with the monotony of the cool grey colour of the steel.
But in real life, rust is something I am sorry to see. It speaks of neglect, of compromise, of lack of foresight, of laziness, of apathy, of failure to preserve and protect.
Decay is not merely physical.

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Hammerhead Crane, Garden Island

Starting painting the Hammerhead Crane
on Garden Island
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The Hammerhead Crane on Garden Island was built between 1944- 1951.

It was still, at the time of this painting, the largest dockside crane in Australia, and one of only 15 still standing around the world.

Soon there will be only 14, as Sydney's Hammerhead Crane has not been used since 1996 and will soon be demolished.

I've been trying to get access to paint the Hammerhead Crane from Garden Island for over 2 years.
After a longer than usual struggle with bureaucracy, I finally gained permission to paint there during the Navy "Rap" period.

No hiphop is involved with the Navy's "Rap"- it's apparently an acronym for reduced activity over the Christmas holiday period.

As the sky became more overcast, I decided to repaint the background for a more dramatic effect.

I think about these structures as a paleontologist regards fossils as once living organisms, and to understand them in that light.

The specimens paleontologists collect are not the living creatures but the few skeletons and fragments that have had the good fortune to survive the lottery of decay and fossilization and come out on the other side as beautiful relics.
The sites I paint are usually relics.

My vantage point for my first painting of the Hammerhead Crane on Garden Island is from the Fitting out Wharf, just to the north of the crane.
I have often painted the Hammerhead Crane from Mrs Macquarie's Chair and the Woolloomooloo Fingerwharf opposite. From these viewpoints, the Hammerhead Crane looked like an leftover Meccano toy.
However now I am almost directly beneath it, I feel overwhelmed by the power and scale of this immense crane looming over me.
The mass of scaffolding unfortunately obscures much of the original structure, while fortunately also preventing it from dropping rusty remnants on my head from a great height.
The contractors will have to construct a temporary crane next to the Hammerhead, which will take several weeks.
The demolition process might take the better part of a year from start to finish, so there will be time to paint many more canvases.

"Hammerhead Crane from the
Fitting Out Wharf, Garden Island "
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
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Several of my paintings and drawings of the Hammerhead Crane have won multiple art awards.
I exhibited my series of paintings and drawings of the Hammerhead Crane at my solo exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery "Under the Hammer" 18th November - 7th December 2014.

More paintings with a naval theme
Painting the International Fleet Review at Barangaroo Part 2

Painting the International Fleet Review at Barangaroo

Painting 'Spirit of Tasmania' in Garden Island Drydock

Sea no evil? Painting the 'Sea Shepherd' at White Bay

The sign of the pirate, the snarling teeth on the bow and the spikes protruding from the helipad. 

Yes, the 'Bob Barker' from Sea Shepherd Australia was in Sydney until Friday.

I was there intending to paint the White Bay Transit Shed before its demolition, but the crew of the "Sea Shepherd", who were curious about the "Artist in Residence" on the wharf, challenged me to see if I could paint their ship while they filmed me. 

I picked up my easel and moved a bit closer to the ship, but out of the way of the crane delivering supplies for their Antarctic voyage. 

 

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm 

Available for sale

The "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" crew challenged me to paint their ship before their departure. 

Nothing like a bit of pressure! These 2 photos of me and my canvas were taken by some of the crew.

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" 

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

Available for sale

With my completed canvas of the "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" in front of the ship.

The ship's crazy paint job made it hard to discern its proportions against the blue sky and sea.

I don't know whether this helps to camouflage it or make it stand out against the backdrop of the icy Southern ocean.

The vessel didn't exactly have classical lines, and there were a lot of strange and fiddly details to cope with. Some of these I didn't really understand until after I had finished my painting and was given a celebratory tour of the ship. Strange yellow and black attachments turned out to be barricading to prevent easy boarding. Later in the afternoon more of these were attached to the upper deck helipad at a jaunty angle - giving the ship an even more raffish and piratical air.

 "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"  2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

Available for sale

I had completed the canvas of the "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" by mid - afternoon and here it is on my easel in front of the ship.

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm 

Available for sale

 

I started the canvas about 10.30 am and finished it by about 1.30pm, then spent a couple of hours having a guided tour of the ship. Unfortunately the next day was quite windy and I aggravated an old shoulder injury while chasing a runaway canvas that had been caught in a sudden gust of wind, so I missed their departure on Friday.

 

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