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

Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb

I was asked by the National Trust After Hours Committee if I could help with a heritage walk "Macdonaldtown Meander" on Sunday 3rd March.

This was quite a challenge.

I have painted Macdonaldtown's majestic neighbour,the Eveleigh Railway Workshops many times,but Macdonaldtown itself had never appeared as an obvious source of inspiration.

But I was intrigued and decided to explore. I'm glad that I did. Often I can concentrate on more obviously spectacular vistas, and miss the subtle charms of smaller details, such as the exquisite series of classical heads as vignettes between each terrace in a row close to the start of Wilson Street.

Macdonaldtown's streets were full of delightful surprises.
This charming decorative corbel is carved into the classically inspired head of a lady.  It separates a row of five 3 storey terraces at the western end of Wilson street. Some of them have been tastefully gentrified in harmonious neutral shades, while their neighbours sport shabby yet garish liquorice all-sorts colours. 
The hot pink terrace on the right reminds me of the time in 1986 when  a couple of local lads decided to beautify Macdonaldtown Station by painting it pink. All of it. Tables, chairs walls and even a pot plant were glued down and painted pink in an "overall effort to enhance the station". No conviction was recorded and the State Rail Authority's claim for damages was rejected by the Magistrate. I had hoped that the hot pink terrace had been occupied by these 2 intrepid painters, but they actually lived in Enfield at the time.

 'The Lady of the house' 
Row of terraces in Wilson street
2012 oil on canvas 18 x 13cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Macdonaldtown, despite its freshly renovated railway station, is not actually a bona fide suburb.

It's a "locality". More of a state of mind, really. The slightly shabbier sister, always being dominated by her more prominent Newtown, St Peters, Enmore, Erskineville and Redfern.The hinterland ; with most of the local landmarks residing slightly outside her nebulous borders -the exciting King Street shopping strip; the funky CarriageWorks; the chimneys of the St Peters Brickworks; the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Macdonaldtown remains the almost invisible space in-between.

While painting in Macdonaldtown, I found most of her inhabitants actually denied living there. They lived in "Newtown", "South Newtown", "near Eveleigh", "west of CarriageWorks", "Hollis Park", "North Erskineville", even the marvellously convoluted "south of Wilson Street West". This could be influenced by the vagaries of  real estate prices rather than dislike of the name Macdonaldtown.

Macdonaldtown mostly consisted of terrace houses of the cheapest possible construction,generally 4 metres (13 ft) wide "two-up two-down" with a rear kitchen.They usually had adjoining walls only one brick thick and a continuous shared roofspace. Hundreds of these  formerly humble dwellings still remain and are rapidly being gentrified. 19th century property developers would build a row terminating in a house of 1 1/2 width at the corner of the street, to be used as a commercial premises, or "Corner Store".

'Someone to watch over me' 
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 25cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

So this lion watching over a shabby shop on Erskineville Road opposite the Erskineville Hotel came as quite a surprise. This is the sort of rooftop sculpture that I would expect on a castle or mansion, rather than in the middle of a tatty row of terraces. It hints at a sort of delusion of grandeur.

 Only 1 person in the pub opposite had ever noticed it peering down at them!

'Derelict 'Edward Brooks'
factory in Wilson street  2012
oil on board 22 x 28cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Another architectural surprise.

The terraces at the northern and eastern end (closer to the University and the city) are as a rule far more prestigious than the workers cottages to the west and south, especially the row in Georgina Street and Warren Ball Avenue next to Hollis Park.

However, next to the very upmarket Hollis Park area, is the very large and very derelict 'Edward Brooks' factory, crumbling into Wilson Street. The winch above the window hints at its industrial past.

 'Edward Brooks building, Wilson Street'

2013 oil on canvas  46 x 92cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This larger painting shows the steps up to the lovely park next door, and how the old factory contrasts with the freshly renovated terrace next door.

 The former 'Edward Brooks building' was known locally, rightly or wrongly as the 'Hat Factory'. By the size of the winch hats (and presumably heads) were a lot bigger back in the good old days!

 None of the locals have so far been able to tell me very much about its history. One man from the Erskineville Hotel, whose dad used to live 3 doors down, said that it was a foundry, which seems possible, although records show the "IronWorks" as being a block further west down the road at no. 150 Wilson Street.

His dad, like so many of the former residents of Macdonaldtown's workers terraces, was an employee of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.Built in 1878, the Eveleigh Railway yards housed the Government Railway Stores and Workshops, and the Locomotive Engineer’s Department from 1901. Production declined in the 1970s and ceased in 1988. The site lay mostly disused til 1996 when the northern (Darlington) end was developed for a communications and science research facility known as the Australian Technology Park.  In 2002 the central part of the north-eastern site became the too cool for school Carriageworks performance space. The forecourt hosts weekly farmers' markets and monthly craft markets. 

 'Pediment with wheat sheaf-
old Henninges bakery in Wilson street -
now 'Original Finish'
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The wheat sheaf on the pediment, reveals the original use of 'Original Finish' as a bakery.
The former Newtown Bread Factory, on the corner of Wilson and Watkin Streets, was run by Henry Henninges in the 19th century.The lane behind the factory still bears Henninges' name.

 Henry Henninges' bakery in 1912.

The building has been very sympathetically and respectfully restored, with small cracks and weathering bearing witness to its previous history,which is appropriate considering that its current occupier, 'Original Finish' specializes in antiques.

Henry Henninges Bakery in 1983

 The former 'Edward Brooks building had been occupied by squatters since about 2001.
The building had last changed hands (for a derisively small amount of money) in 1981. The owner apparently only lives a few blocks down the road, but allowed the property to rot, in a similar fashion to the Terminus Hotel and the Darling Island Bond and Free Store of Pyrmont. Landbanking played as an extreme sport.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so a variety of squatters and local community groups had apparently moved in.
They were forcibly evicted in a very heavy handed fashion by the riot squad on Thursday 31st July 2014.
The once-shunned building has now been bought for $1.7 million at a hotly contested auction and will now apparently be renovated rather than demolished. 

Related articles

Riot police raid Newtown Squat by Rose Powell, SMH Thursday 31st July 2014

Eveleigh Community Heritage Day

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet- Part 5 ' Follow the Fleet'

My first attempt to paint the entire Rozelle contingent of the Sydney Heritage Fleet ended in disaster when my canvas stretcher snapped in two.
I was better prepared for my second attempt, with a bigger easel, stronger canvas stretcher, more ballast and longer cable ties.
Armed with a canvas stretched on the strongest and heaviest stretcher frame I could buy, this time I took my "studio" easel. It might be called a studio easel but I can manage to stuff it in the back of the car and use it for plein air painting.
I brought the longest cable ties that I could find to tie the canvas to the easel, and the easel to my trolley luggage, which I am using as an anchor.
The canvas stretcher weighs about 10 kilos; my large easel weighs at least 15 kilos and the trolley luggage with all its contents of extra paint, brushes, palettes, turps, painting medium, sketchbooks, lunch, thermos of water, folding table, first aid kit, spare clothes, hat and boots weighs in at a good 25 kilos. I also took the French box easel, just in case. It took 4 trips to lug this stuff the 200 metres from the car to my painting site, and 5 to lug it back, as a wet canvas has to be handled on its own.
If all of that starts to be blown around in the wind and into the water it really is time to wimp out and go home.
I'll never need to join a gym or a bootcamp. Who knows, large scale plein air painting could become the latest fitness craze!

My plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

It isn't immediately apparent which bits belong to which vessels.
I tried hard to take a photo showing both the painting and all the ships in the same frame to show some of the difficulties.
Apart from the distance making details hard to see, there is a narrow window of opportunity to do any painting. I have to choose a day that has no more than the gentlest breeze, and has enough sun to throw some light on my subject. Even then, there are only a few hours of painting time between when the early morning haze lifts, and when the afternoon sun starts to dazzle my eyes.

My plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

Photography doesn't really work, as a telephoto lens flattens and distorts the relationships between the vessels and the colours are highly misleading. There is such a mad jigsaw puzzle of funnels, prows, awnings and lifeboats all jumbled together. Bits that belong to one vessel can easily be mistaken as belonging to another .
For understanding the close up details, I find it better to visit the Rozelle shipyard and run my canvas past the gauntlet of all the volunteers who have devoted their lives to rescuing these ships. If I've made any truly embarrassing mistakes I can rely on them to correct me. Loudly, often and in great detail!

My plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

In the centre of my painting, the 'Bronzewing' and 'Currawong', tugs recently acquired by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, are face to face like two old friends having a chinwag.
Crammed behind them, the funnel of the a coal-fired steam tug 'Waratah' juts out at a jaunty angle. 'Waratah' was built at Cockatoo Island in 1902.
After a lot of untangling. the steam tug 'Lady Hopetoun' appears shadowed in the background of the dilapidated hulk of the 100 year old ferry 'Kanangra'. The 'Kanangra' is another link with Cockatoo Island. I remember catching her in the morning when I was painting on Cockatoo island in the early 1980s. I think she was retired by about 1985.

My plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

Beyond the 'Kanangra' are the runts of the litter, the 1908 motor launch 'Protex', the 1943 motor launch 'Harmon' and the 1955 motor launch 'Berrima'.

My plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

To the right of the canvas is the graceful 1903 "gentleman's schooner", 'Boomerang', which I have just finished painting on the slipway at Noakes.

My half finished plein air painting of the

"Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Available

All of these are dwarfed by the bulk of the 1927 steamship "John Oxley", currently being restored to its former glory.

My half finished plein air painting of the

"White Bay Power Station from Blackwattle Bay"

2012 oil on canvas 41 x 51cm

Available

By 1pm the changes in the direction of the light had made it difficult to see any useful details on the ships.
It was still about an hour before the wind would change, so I started painting a small canvas of the silhouette of the White Bay Power Station.
I have frequently painted this beautifully brutal building, from the inside as well as the outside. However I have rarely painted it from Blackwattle Bay, so I'm making up for this oversight.
The wind whipped up about 2pm, so both canvases are going well, but still unfinished. Till next time.

Related posts

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 1
Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 2 : The 'Lady Hopetoun'
Slipping away
Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet - Part 4 'Blowing in the wind'
'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
"Lashed to the Mast" - Plein Air painting as extreme sport
Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island
Jane Bennett paints the 'Lady Hopetoun'
Exhibition SALT IN THE AIR 27 April - 3rd May 2013 (asma-artistinresidence.blogspot.com)
Boat at Goat (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet - Part 4 'Blowing in the wind'

I have been commissioned to paint a monumental canvas of all the vessels of the Sydney Heritage Fleet from the foreshore of Blackwattle Bay at the end of Glebe Point road.
There are a few obvious challenges to overcome.
One of the challenges is that from this distance it is difficult to separate one vessel from another - they seem to merge into each other.
After my first session of painting this, I made several visits to the Rozelle shipyard and to the Noakes shipyard at Waverton to paint smaller canvases of some of the vessels such as the 'Lady Hopetoun', the 'John Oxley', the 'Kanangra' and the 'Boomerang'. Even though these were from different angles to the way they are from this viewpoint, I now have a much better understanding of what I have to deal with.
The sheer complexity of the subject could swamp the viewer in a mass of inchoate detail, so I have to choose carefully which areas to highlight and which to shadow to create enough rhythm to tie the composition together.

Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm

Available

A much bigger problem is very size of the canvas to be painted 'en plein air' . This canvas is 122 x 178cm.
The concept is for the ships to dominate the space and immerse the onlooker in the unique world of the Rozelle shipyard.
I have painted works on this scale 'en plein air' before and know all too well how it can turn into a wrestling match with the artist pitted against the elements.


Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'
2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm
Available
My painting was really starting to come together, but by noon the light had shifted so that I was looking into the glare of the afternoon sun.
And the wind was steadily rising.
The scene in this photograph looks deceptively calm, with Blackwattle Bay looking as still as a mirror, but less than half an hour later, I was chasing my brushes all over the park.
I knew that I should really stop painting, but the temptation for just one more brushstroke was too much.

Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm

Available

A sudden gust of wind and it was all over.

My canvas stretcher had snapped clean in half!
I had used cable ties to secure it to my easel, but the wood itself wasn't strong enough to withstand the weather conditions.
Fortunately, some people who had been watching me paint while they walked their dogs, helped me drag the flapping canvas and the rest of my belongings to my car.

If they hadn't, I would have been in some danger of going hang-gliding into Blackwattle Bay.

The other side of the canvas.

Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'

2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm

Available

 
Unfortunately this is 122 x 178cm which is not a standard size for a canvas.The standard stretcher size is 122 x 183cm.
I will have to unpick the staples and restretch it. By a miracle, the canvas itself wasn't damaged, just the wood.
But I will have to restretch this on another stretcher of the same type which is made of lightweight wood, probably balsa. This will withstand moderate wind up to about 25-30 km/h but a random gust of 35-40 km/h might be too much.
At the moment the wind gusts at Blackwattle Bay are so strong that I will need to use an extra heavy duty stretcher frame composed of stronger wood, and twice the depth of this one. And these types of stretchers are not available for a 122 x 178cm size canvas.
I will finish this painting one day, when there are a few calm days together. But I really need to get this done by the end of October, so rather than risk another lightweight canvas suffering the same fate I might as well start a fresh canvas.

Update
At times I never thought I'd live to see the day, but at last I have finally finished my giant canvas!
And now with 9 other women members of ASMA, the Australian Society of Marine Artists I will be holding an exhibition of my paintings of the Sydney Heritage Fleet.
In 2008 the Sydney Heritage Fleet in conjunction with the Australian Society of Marine Artists inaugurated an Artist in Residence programme, with the commission from sale of paintings going towards funding the Fleet's maintenance.
Our group of 10 artists will hold an exhibition of our completed paintings on the 'tween decks of the tall ship 'James Craig', which is the jewel in the crown of the Sydney Heritage Fleet, from 27th April 2013 - 3rd May 2013.
This must be the world's coolest gallery!
As well as this enormous canvas, I will exhibit 16 other paintings. Some of these were painted at the Rozelle headquarters, some from the Noakes slipways, others from the Australian National Maritime Museum and others from vantage points around Sydney Harbour.
The official opening will be 2pm on Saturday 27th April by Tanya Plibersek MP.
Everyone is welcome!

Related posts

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 1

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 2 : The 'Lady Hopetoun'

Follow the Fleet

Slipping away
'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
"Lashed to the Mast" - Plein Air painting as extreme sport

Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island

Boat at Goat

Jane Bennett paints the 'Lady Hopetoun' (asma-artistinresidence.blogspot.com)

Exhibition SALT IN THE AIR 27 April - 3rd May 2013 (asma-artistinresidence.blogspot.com)