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

'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'

My solo exhibition 'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo' will be held at the Frances Keevil Gallery until 24th March 2013.

'Goat Island from Moore's Wharf'

2013 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm Sold

The 'Hungry Mile''
2007 oil on canvas 100 x 122cm
Enquiries about these paintings
This exhibition will be the major event for Art Month, and will opened by Elizabeth Fortescue, Visual Arts Writer for The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 5th March 2013, 6 – 8pm.

'Wharf 6/7' 1999 oil on canvas 61 x 101cm
'Harbour Control Tower from Moore's Wharf ' 
2013 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm  Sold

'L3' Crane, with the 'Taiko'

2006 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm

'Barangaroo from Glebe Island' 2010

oil on canvas 31 x 61 cm  Sold

'The empty wharf from shed 6' 2008

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

'Interior, Wharf 8-9' 2000

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

'Night, from bridge of 'Maersk Gateshead'

2009 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm

'The 'Southern Cross'

2007 oil on canvas 31 x 92cm Sold

Enquiries about these paintings

'Yellow cranes from the cage'

2007 oil on canvas 153 x 61cm Sold

'Capitaine Tasman' + 'Caledonie Express' night

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'The last call of the 'Tampa'

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'Forklifts in the fog panorama'

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'The Pacific Dawn with demolition of Shed 6'

2008 oil on canvas 31x103cm

Enquiries about these paintings

The gallery was still hanging the exhibition when these photos were taken.

'The Last of the Hungry Mile' 2007 oil on canvas 180 x 122cm
FINALIST : 2008 SULMAN PRIZE, ART GALLERY OF NSW
'Walsh Bay Wharves, Moore's Wharf and the Hungry Mile'
2002 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm
'Relics from the 'Dead House' 2007 oil on canvas 122 x 100cm
Enquiries about these paintings

The paintings show the transition of the former wharf, East Darling Harbour, known as the "Hungry Mile", to the construction site, Barangaroo.

'Sydney Harbour Panorama from the Stamford on Kent'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 153cm Sold

'Moore's Wharf from the bridge of 'Scholarship'

2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold

Moore's Wharf, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay Wharves'

2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold

'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from the Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm"

'The Last of the Hungry Mile' 2007 oil on canvas 180 x 122cm
FINALIST : 2008 SULMAN PRIZE, ART GALLERY OF NSW
Enquiries about these paintings

I've had a ring-side seat to paint this fascinating area, courtesy of many businesses and private individuals, who had to put up with having a self-appointed "Artist in Residence" paint from their offices, shops, cafes or homes.

'Harbour Control Tower from Moore's Wharf '

2013 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm Sold

'L3' Crane, with 'Taiko' 2006

oil on canvas 51 x 25cm

'The 'Charlotte ' passing Goat Island 2011

oil on canvas 15 x 18cm Sold 

'Goat Island from Moore's Wharf' 2010

oil on canvas 45 x 91 cm

'High Street from the wharf' 2007

oil on canvas 31 x 41cm

'Forklifts in the fog' 2007

oil on canvas 31 x 41cm

Enquiries about these paintings

I've been able to create large-scale plein air canvases in the middle of the Barangaroo demolition site, from the top of the Harbour Control Tower and in Moore's Wharf, the headquarters of the Sydney Ports Corporation Emergency Response Tugs and Pilot Boats.

'Sydney Harbour Panorama from the Stamford on Kent'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 153cm Sold
Moore's Wharf from the bridge of the 'Scholarship'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold
Moore's Wharf, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay Wharves'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold
'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries about these paintings
These are the last outposts of maritime and industrial activity, once so familiar around Sydney Harbour.

'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from the Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries about these paintings
 
See also my previous solo exhibition in 2011 at the Frances Keevil Gallery : "May Close without warning"

Related posts

The Mother Art is Architecture

Eaten by Robots

The Last of the Hungry Mile

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

I've spent a couple of days last week painting some small canvases of Pyrmont workers' cottages from the Bond store over the road at 12 Pyrmont Street.
This pair of semi-detached 1860s workers cottages might have started life as identical twins, but have suffered radically different fates over the years.

Starting my painting 'A tale of two cottages'
2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings
They remind me of an old classic movie on daytime TV I watched many years ago. I can't remember its name, or much about the plot or who was in it. All I can recall is that it was about a pair of beautiful twin sisters - one was the epitome of niceness but the other one was evil and came to a sticky and well deserved end.

Plein air painting 'A tale of two cottages'
2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings
While the “good twin”, number 27 Pyrmont Street, has been lovingly renovated several times over the last 30 years, the “bad twin”, number 29 Pyrmont Street, is yet another property owned by the same couple who own Darling Island Bond and Free Store and the Terminus Hotel, and is in a similar state of neglect as the rest of their portfolio.
The “good twin” has an exquisitely applied paint job in the latest fashionable neutral shades. The “bad twin” once boasted a front wall and stoop of glorious Pyrmont yellowblock sandstone, but this had unfortunately been covered with a cheap and nasty coat of plaster and bright blue paint which has faded erratically.

'A tale of two cottages' 2012 oil on canvas 25 x 25 cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings
In the early 1980s, Number 27 was occupied by a couple of eccentric graphic designers. They started the ambitious but ill-fated "Pyrmont Passport" as a protest about the over-development of the Pyrmont Peninsula and the construction of the Casino. After they lost this fight, one of them moved to live in the Birdsville pub to get away from the madness of inner city politics
I haven't yet met the current occupants of Number 27, but the elegant brass plate next to the door is inscribed "Rhubarb" in a funky yet tasteful font. At the moment it seems that it is compulsory for anyone who lives or works in Pyrmont has to be an architect, a web designer or run a restaurant, preferably all three simultaneously. As "Rhubarb" is a type of vegetable, it would be far too literal a name for a restaurant, my money is on it being full of architects or web designers.
Last century, the residents of Pyrmont tended to fit into a few well defined categories. The CSR employees clustered around the western end of John Street, wharfies and ex-wharfies around Point, eastern Bowman and northern Harris Streets, the Darling Island shunters and other railway employees around Murray, Bunn and southern Harris Street and people working around the Fishmarkets on the western side of Bowman street and around Wattle Street. There were few restaurants, but many pubs, all rough as guts. And the "media, cultural and entertainment hub" was provided by the topless barmaids at the Terminus, and the parties thrown by the squatters of Scott and Point Streets.


'A tale of two cottages' 2
2012 oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm
Enquiries about similar paintings
While Number 27 has a neatly rendered step and a pretty little white picket fence,in contrast the facade of number 29 has shown a distressing tendency to fall face down in the gutter like Lindsay Lohan.
Recently an emergency repair of an unflattering bright red brick retaining wall had to be applied to stop the rest of the cottage sliding down the hill.
However, the "bad twin" still has good bones and is possibly not beyond redemption.

'A tale of two cottages' 2

2012 oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm
Enquiries about similar paintings

Every time I paint in Pyrmont Street I fantasize about what could be done by a sympathetic owner, some TLC and vast quantities of time and money......

I finished the smaller canvas only just in time for it to dry for the opening of the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery last night!
It had barely been hung before it was sold and taken away by the happy owner. They hadn't even run out of wine and cheese at the opening.
So I'll be back soon on the corner of John and Pyrmont streets to finish a slightly larger canvas.
The Xmas exhibition continues until 31st December 2012
FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
  mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

Pyrmont Paintings past and present
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
The photos of the display are courtesy of Frances Keevil, who also very kindly took time out from the gallery to hang and help me label the work. If not for Frances I'd probably still be there trying to cable tie canvases onto the security fence. It was still a nightmare to hang, and having to cable tie extremely valuable and historic paintings to a security fence is far from ideal.
The artworks are at risk of being damaged, and so was I. Due to the unfortunate timing of the Sydney half marathon being run on the morning of the event and the roads being closed as a consequence, there was very little time to unload my art and hang it.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I had brought 50 paintings on canvas and board for the exhibition. The largest was a 61 x 183cm canvas of a panorama of "Union Square" and the smallest was a tiny work on board of a detail of a window of the Terminus Hotel that at 9 x 13cm could fit in the palm of your hand.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows a couple of paintings of the CSR with some information sheets about my experiences creating them.
I also brought a small folio of works on paper, most of which had never been previously exhibited.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by

Jane Bennett at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
Despite the rain we had a good audience. I met 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.
I am now trying to complete 6 commissions resulting from contacts made on this day.

Exhibition of paintings of Pyrmont by Jane Bennett

at the 2012 Pyrmont Festival

Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows a corner of my stall. I'm glad I decided to add this to my allotted space on the security fence, as the stall gave a little shelter from the rain, and I wouldn't have been able to display my books or photos of the rest of my work otherwise.
But the stall and the fence for the daily cost $220, which Ned Kelly would have been ashamed of.
Pyrmont Point was once the site of no less than 5 of my studios. Had the earlier businesses and residents of Pyrmont been as greedy, I wouldn't have been able to create any of the paintings that the current residents enjoy.
Wood if I could...

Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I had made eleven small table easels in the weeks before as preparation for the event. Small paintings would get lost on the fencing next to larger works, and it freed up space for sheets of information about my series of Pyrmont paintings. The historical context is becoming more and more important as time goes by and the new residents seek information about their area.

Table easel made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett
I'm no carpenter - in fact I've very rarely picked up a hammer or screwdriver in my life before. I had bought a couple of little easels, but they were fairly useless. They tended to collapse or fall over easily - not a good look in a public exhibition. I couldn't find anything that would serve my purpose in the art shops they were either far too big or small, much too expensive, or had useless fiddly bits that would soon snap off or stab an expensive painting in the back.
I was sick of playing "Goldilocks" so I decided to try my hand at making what I needed despite a total lack of skill, knowledge, experience or the correct tools or materials.
I used some bits of scrap wood I found lying around the garden.
"Recycled" is probably too kind a word for it, "rubbish" is closer to the mark. It was a motley collection salvaged from a warped canvas stretcher,part of an old fence, a couple of garden stakes and a rotting pallet that a neighbour put out for council clean-up. But once I had sanded them and covered up the wonky bits with wood stain they scrubbed up quite well.
These "easels" are just simple A frame tripods. I didn't even attempt to make them with adjustable heights. which I knew was well beyond my almost non-existent woodworking abilities. Also most of my easels with adjustable heights have some major design flaw anyway that makes them hell to use.

These are simply to prop up a small to medium size painting so it can be seen with a bit of dignity at an event where there is no hanging system, and very limited time to prepare the display.

No two of them are the same size or shape. I practice saying "quirky rustic charm" a lot.

"Terminus Hotel" displayed on a Table easel

made of recycled timber by artist Jane Bennett

2010 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
But they do the job.
The red cedar woodstain especially suited the Terminus Hotel paintings, as it picked up the burnt siena of the ivy -covered bricks.

oil painting of "Gargoyle on spire of

Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney"

displayed on a Table easel made of recycled timber

2009 oil on board 25 x 20cm
Enquiries
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
This shows my painting of "Gargoyle on spire of Maclaurin Hall, University of Sydney" displayed on a table easel that I made from parts of a shabby old frame that had warped and had to be removed. Unfortunately I discovered at the festival that the white paint blistered in the rain, so I have now taken it apart, sanded it back and given it a coat of the same red cedar wood stain so it now matches the others.
For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant   A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2 

St Vincent's- In the Art of Darlinghurst

 

Victoria st 2009 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries

In December 2009 I was asked by some people who worked at St Vincent's if I could create paintings of some terrace houses on a Darlinghurst block adjacent to St Vincent’s Public Hospital. Almost an entire block of Victoria Street between the Garvan Institute and the Green Park Hotel would be replaced by the construction of a new 11-storey medical centre.

'Victoria Street mural and the clinic'

2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm

Enquiries

The structures on this side of Victoria Street included the RMO, the Diabetes Centre, the Rankin Court Clinic for Drug and Alcohol treatment and a bright green mural which honoured World Aids Day.

For another view of this now destroyed mural see the post "Monday Mural" on the fascinating blog of Sydney Eye

"Victoria st -The World AIDS Day Mural
between the Green Park Hotel and Rankin Court"
2010 oil on canvas 36 x 46cm
Enquiries

By the time that I started this series of paintings, these services were in the process of being relocated to neighbouring buildings. By mid 2010, the breakthrough new cancer treatment Centre, the Kinghorn Centre, was already under construction.

 

Victoria st terraces-The Mural to honour 'World AIDS Day'

2009-10 Ink, gouache on paper 43 x 61cm

Enquiries 
The Kinghorn Centre, which will be opened in June 2012, is a joint Garvan Institute and St Vincent's Hospital project. It will pioneer a revolutionary method of customizing patient treatment instead of the previous one-drug-fits-all approach.
In early December 2011, cancer survivor Delta Goodrem, who is the patron of the Kinghorn Centre, spoke to assembled staff and construction workers at its launch .
See articles:"Delta Goodrem helps break ground on cancer centre" ; Article in Daily Telegraph

'A Corinthian column, St Vincents' De Lacy wing'

2011 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

My aim was to paint the exciting transition of the area from past to future. I painted all the works in this exhibition on site, sheltering under the awnings of the local restaurants and coffee shops, whose staff would keep an eye on my easel and belongings.

From the Green park Bandstand, I painted the classical facade of St Vincent’s heritage De Lacey wing framed by ferny canopies of lime green trees.

'An Ionic column, St Vincents' Public Hospital,

De Lacy wing' 2011 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Some of these buildings have heritage value, and all of them are regarded with genuine affection by the locals. Most of the architecture of this block has been compromised to a greater or lesser extent by tasteless modern extensions, but taken as a whole, they express the character of a colourful and unique area of Sydney street-life.
 

"Victoria st terraces-The RMO "
2009-10 oil on canvas 46 x 36cm
Enquiries 

The area is colourful and picturesque with a great diversity of buildings: from garish to subdued; from shabby to plush - and the characters who live, work and visit this area, rival the buildings for diversity and raffish charm.

"Victoria st terraces Nos 372-4 -

the Diabetes Centre & the RMO"

2009 oil on canvas 51x41cm.

SOLD
Enquiries

Victoria Street is a peculiar mélange of architecture ranging from the charming, to the quirky, to the downright hideous.

Hole-in-the-wall coffee bars contrast with the sleek corporate steel and glass of the Victor Chang Institute in the background.

In between a few examples of faded glamour it's scruffy and noisy but the place feels busy and vibrant.

An oasis of calm in all this frenetic activity is Green Park.

 

"Victoria st terraces-Diabetes Australia"

2009 oil on canvas 31x31cm.

 SOLD
Enquiries

English colonial grandeur rubs shoulders with crumbling terraces overgrown with vines and painted in brightly sub-tropical hues.

"Victoria st terraces-The RMO"

2009-10 Ink, gouache on paper 63 x 41cm

Enquiries 

My paintings of the buildings of this demolished block of Darlinghurst terraces honour the memories of the past, while celebrating the exciting possibilities of the future.
My exhibition will be held at the Xavier Art Space, Level 3 (which is the ground floor entry level) in the foyer of the St Vincent's Public Hospital. The Exhibition period is from 4 February - 8 March 2012, with the official opening on Tuesday night the 7th of February from 6-8pm. The works will be able to be viewed during the general hospital opening hours.
I am represented by the FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY mob: 0411 821550

  info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au
The Director, Frances Keevil will be curating and hanging the exhibition.

For more information about my paintings of the Victoria Street Terraces see my Urban Landscape Page