All fired up

Designer + Blacksmith = The Collaborative Effect

 This event, coordinated by Alain-Henri Chazelles of IN HOUSE GROUP3, brought designer Alex Ritchie, (Creative Director of experiential design agency E2) and metalworker Guido Gouverneur (Blacksmith and Metalworker of Wrought Artworks and Steel Windows and Doors), together to discuss forged iron and conceptually designed architectural metalwork in the built environment.

Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist,
painting the blacksmiths of 'Wrought Artworks'
 Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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Guido and his team of blacksmiths also gave an exciting forging demonstration. 

Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
painting the blacksmiths of 'Wrought Artworks'
Australian Technology Park Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist
painting the blacksmiths of 'Wrought Artworks'
Australian Technology Park Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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I also gave a demonstration of how I paint fast-moving artisans working in darkness, while attempting to dodge the twirling batons of red-hot metal that they waved around with such nonchalant grace.

Exhibition by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist,
 painting the blacksmiths of 'Wrought Artworks'
 Australian Technology Park Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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I exhibited a selection of my paintings of the Blacksmiths of Wrought Artworks as well as paintings of the fascinating interior and Victorian era heritage industrial machinery of the site.
One of the great drawcards of the ATP has been the continual operation of Blacksmith’s shop in Bays 1 & 2 South at the ATP.  From the very beginning it has been seen as maintaining a link to the buildings industrial past. The construction of the ATP had even included the erection of an acoustic wall so that the workshop could continue to function close to the new occupants. However the existance of the Blacksmith's shop was threatened when the Redfern Waterloo Authority served them with a notice to quit by the 30th September 2008. After a successful campaign and Open Day the RWA and the Blacksmiths then signed a Lease that preserved the operating Blacksmiths and recognised the vital importance of heritage preservation in the operations of the Technology Park.
See the history of the campaign to save the blacksmith :
Redwatch "ATP's operating Blacksmith"

Exhibition by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist,
painting the blacksmiths of 'Wrought Artworks'
Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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 The photos of me in action were taken by Frances Keevil, the Director of the Frances Keevil Gallery.

E83 'Blacksmith forging '
2011 ink pastel acrylic on paper 9 x 10cm  
WINNER 2nd Prize for Miniature Painting 
2011 Royal Easter Show 

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E64 The Blacksmith 2011
oil on canvas 75x100cm
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See "Designer + Blacksmith = Collaborative Effect"

Next year, for a single day on Saturday 25th February 2012, the whole Australian Technology Park will be open to the public.

There will be another forging demonstration and I will have an even larger exhibition of paintings, as well as giving a demonstration of painting the heritage interiors and the blacksmiths.

 Eveleigh paintings

Related posts

Irons in the fire
Watching the forge fires fade
Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb
Eveleigh- Industrial Heritage Artist at Work
The village smithy (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)
Time for Safety 
The slow return from the fire 
The fire within 
En plein air with street cred (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)

"May close without warning" Solo exhibition at Frances Keevil Gallery Part 2 "All that is solid melts into air"

More Paintings and Drawings from my solo exhibition
"May close without warning"
at the Frances Keevil Gallery
11 - 30 OCTOBER 2011
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au

'May Close without warning...'

 My paintings and drawings are accompanied by some excerpts from "The Meanings of Deindustrialization" by Jefferson Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, Saint Louis University 2003  Faculty Publications - Collective Bargaining, Labor Law, and Labor History. Paper 33

Painting 'en plein air'  "White Bay Power Station " 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
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"The point of departure for any discussion of deindustrialization must be respect

for the despair and betrayal felt by workers as their mines, factories,
and mills were padlocked, abandoned, turned into artsy shopping spaces, or even dynamited."

"White Bay Power Station " 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
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"While economists and business leaders often speak in neutral, even hopeful, terms such as "restructuring," "downsizing" or "creative destruction," metaphors of defeat and subjugation are more appropriate for the workers who banked on good-paying industrial jobs for the livelihoods of their families and their communities..."

Painting 'en plein air' 

"White Bay Power Station Chimney stacks"

2011 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm

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"In fact, the first public use of the term "deindustrialization" identified the Allies' policy toward Germany just after World War II: an active process of victors stripping a vanquished nation of its industrial power."

"White Bay Power Station Coal Loader" 
2011 oil on board 35 x 28cm

"The dramatic evidence of industrial change and capital flight that litters our landscapes does, however, present a basic collective problem: How do we account for the destruction of an economic order that seemed so rooted and pervasive?"

"Industrial Cathedral"
charcoal drawing on paper 131 x 131 cm 

This drawing was a finalist in the 1998 Dobell Prize for Drawing (Art Gallery of N.S.W.) ; Finalist in 1998 Blake Prize for Religious Art ; Winner of 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize

"In the end, what may be most troubling about these ruined industrial landscapes is not that they refer to some once stable era, but rather that they remind us of the ephemeral quality of the world we take for granted."

"Grabber, Muncher, Ripper"
2010 oil on canvas 31 x 31 cm

Outside the derelict wharf, the demolition team waited patiently for all the preliminary drilling and checks to be completed before they got the green light to start.

The parrot beaks of the excavation attachments and their scarred and scaly skin reminded me of the animated re-creations of Tyrannosaurus rex.

These particular attachments are actually really called "Munchers"! The names of other attachments eg. "Buckets", "Grabbers", "Rippers" and "Pulverizers" are also reminiscent of comic books and children's toys.

"If Karl Marx was right in saying "all that is solid melts into air," then the industrial culture forged in the furnace of fixed capital investment was itself a temporary condition. What millions of working men and women might have experienced as solid, dependable, decently waged work really only lasted for a brief moment in the history of capitalism."

"Dave and Lok forging at 'Wrought Artworks', Eveleigh Railway Workshops" 2010 oil on canvas 36 x 46cm
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"Because capital was fixed in giant machines bolted to the floors of brick-and-mortar factories, the industrial culture that emerged in various places at various moments had an aura of permanence, durability, and heritage....."

Panorama drawn from the top of the silos of the 
"Mungo Scott Flour Mills, Summer Hill" 
2010 charcoal, ink and gouache on paper 118 x 118cm

The Operations of these flour mills have been transferred to Picton, on the periphery of the south western suburbs, about 2 years ago. Now this mill will be redeveloped into an apartment complex similar to other former mills in Dulwich Hill and Newtown.

"Forging chisels (Drawing down), 
'Wrought Artworks' Eveleigh Railway Workshops" 
2011 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm

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"Working people saw in the decline of this industrial order the dissolution of their society, culture, and way of life, and the betrayal of their trust by those whose decisions shaped their fate."

Related posts

Power
"May close without warning" Solo Exhibition at Frances Keevil Gallery
Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2
White Bay Power Station : Inside Out
Power House
"May close without warning" Part 3- Meet the artist
Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station 

Power

1. Possession of controlling influence ;  having great influence or control over others
2. (physics) the rate of doing work; measured in watts (= joules/second)
3. Possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done  
4. The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively.
5. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
6. Physical strength
7. a prerogative, privilege, or liberty
8. Forcefulness; effectiveness
9. A specific capacity, faculty, or aptitude. 
10. to travel with great speed or force
11. Of or relating to the generation or transmission of electricity
12.  Power (physics), the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted
13. Electric power, the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by a circuit
14. Human power, the rate of work performed by a human
15. Motive power, an agent used to create motion

Definitions of 'power'

WBPS85 ' White Bay Power Station'  2016

oil on canvas 61 x 91cm

Available for sale

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

11. 'Of or relating to the generation or transmission of electricity...'

.White Bay Power Station was originally built by the Department of Railways to supply more power for Sydney’s growing Electric Tramway System in 1912 (and was later expanded for the City and Suburban Railway Electrification in the mid 1920s)The power station was constructed in two stages. The first stage, built between 1912 and 1917, consisted of a boiler house, standing roughly where the present boiler house stands, and part of the turbine hall and switch house. The second stage, which commenced in 1925, saw the completion of the turbine hall and switch house.
After the Second World War, the first boiler house was demolished and, between 1950 and 1958, replaced in two stages with the present boiler house.
Demand for power from White Bay waned when the trams were abolished*. By the 1970s, the demand had diminished to such an extent that the second boiler house was pulled down and the turbines sold.

WBPS83 'Coal Loader +
Chimney White Bay Power Station' 
2016 oil on paper 9.5 x 9.5cm
Available for sale
Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

The power station was decommissioned on 25 December 1983.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the power station was gradually stripped, except for items identified for heritage conservation.
In August 2000, Pacific Power sold White Bay Power Station to Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.
*Ironically, Light rail is being re-established in the inner western suburbs so the demand for power is now increasing!

Painting the White Bay Power Station
"White Bay Power Station" 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
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10.To travel with great speed or force...

 I'm putting the final flourishes on my gigantic painting of the White Bay Power Station. It's been a race against time.

Even though my next solo exhibition "May close without warning" doesn't start until the 11th October, I had to get some strong images together for the advertising in the "Look" Magazine, and think about suitable images for the invitation. Most of my paintings of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops are just too dark to photograph well. So the pressure was on me to finish this work in time!

14.Human power-the rate of work performed by a human...

Many invitations show the artist posing self-consciously in front of works in progress in their pristine white studio. But I have no studio as such. Although, on the other hand as I work "en plein air" you could say that the whole world is my studio. 

So just for a change, I thought I'd include a couple of images of my works in progress on location.

 The security guard took a few photos of me in action completing this canvas, and my gallery dealer liked this one so much that we might even include it on the invitation to the opening!

I wear an Akubra, not a beret while I paint.

The Akubra hat is a necessity and not an artistic affectation. It shades my face from the sun, keeps my hair out of my eyes and is waterproof enough to keep the rain off in bad weather.

6.Physical strength...

Putting the final details on the "White Bay Power Station"
"White Bay Power Station" 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm

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This canvas is 102 x 152cm - extremely large for a work painted outdoors on location. The early stages could be painted fairly quickly, but nuances such as light falling on the windows are made more difficult by the slightest puff of wind making the canvas beat like a drum.
I fossicked for bricks to weight down my easel so I wouldn't have to chase it all over the yard.

3.Possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done...
The worst moment was painting the thin diagonal lines reaching from the top of the chimney stacks to the roof. I had been dreading putting these in, as they had to be painted in a single confident unbroken stroke, cutting across the sky. The sky was still wet, so I couldn't use a ruler.

Using my car as a windbreak so I can add some details with a fine brush.

"White Bay Power Station" 

2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm

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Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

4.The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively...

 I tried to use my car as a windbreak, with only partial success. As you can see from the photo above, I adjusted the French box easel until the canvas was almost horizontal, but it was still too risky to paint these fragile lines. If I made the slightest mistake, I would have had to scrape down the entire sky and start again.

8.Forcefulness; Effectiveness
I waited a long time for a still, calm day before I had the confidence to tackle this task. Then a final decisive sweep of the brush and the canvas was finished.

2.The rate of doing work...

Meanwhile I completed a few small studies of details of the Power Station, partly to help me to understand the complexities of light and form, and partly to fill in time while waiting for the wind to drop so that I could finish the large canvas.

Works in progress

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

Painting the "White Bay Power Station stacks" 
 2011 oil on board 51.5 x 25cm

Available for sale

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

"White Bay Power Station stacks" 2011
 oil on board 51.5 x 25.5cm
Available for sale

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

"White Bay Power Station coal loader" 
2011 oil on board  35 x 28cm
Available for sale

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

The completed canvas "White Bay Power Station" 
2011 oil on canvas 102 x 152cm
Sold

Enquiries about other White Bay Power Station paintings

Also see my page in this blog :

White Bay Hotel/White Bay Power Station Paintings

Related posts

Inside Out

Tower of power

Power House

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 1

Steady Rest

Rust Bucket