Pyrmont paintings past and present- My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum

Yesterday, today and tomorrow in Pyrmont.
I've been invited to exhibit a selection of 15 of my Pyrmont paintings in the members' lounge of the Australian National Maritime Museum.
This exhibition will still be on display throughout the annual Pyrmont festival in May, which culminates in a 2 day celebration of Art, Wine and Food in Pirrama Park, on the weekend of Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May 2014.

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings
in the members lounge of the

Australian National Maritime Museum

Enquiries about these paintings

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings
in the members lounge of the
Australian National Maritime Museum
Enquiries about these paintings

As usual, I will be exhibiting my smaller canvases and paintings on wood panels at the Park itself, however this display in the members lounge has given me a wonderful opportunity to show work that is impossible to display outdoors in the festival, such as works on paper framed under glass.

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings
in the members lounge of the
Australian National Maritime Museum
Enquiries about these paintings

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings in the

members lounge of the

Australian National Maritime Museum

Enquiries about these paintings

This is a view of the exhibition from the most comfy sofa in the middle of the members lounge.

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings
in the members lounge of the
Australian National Maritime Museum

My exhibition of Pyrmont paintings
in the members lounge of the
Australian National Maritime Museum

This quick sketch of the rooftops of the CSR Refinery and the Glebe Island swing bridge is hung behind the reception desk.

I drew this from the top of the CSR Boilerhouse several years before the Anzac Bridge was built.

P97B "Tumbledown cottage, 95 Pyrmont st (now demolished)"
1994 ink/paper 22 x 30 cm
P31 "Jones Bay Wharf, 1" 1997 ink/paper 30.5 x 40.5 cm
O21 "Pyrmont, looking west from Observatory Hill"
1989 gouache/paper 34 x 75 cm
Enquiries about these paintings

HCT13 "The 'Southern Cross' from the Harbour Control Tower 2007
gouache/paper 30 x 50 cm
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This is the most recent image of Pyrmont in this exhibition, although by now the wharf in the foreground has been completely demolished to make way for the controversial Barangaroo development.
My studio in the control room of the Harbour Tower gave me a 360 degree birds eye view of Sydney Harbour, so this is a very unfamiliar aspect of the Pyrmont peninsula.

P120 "Jones Bay Wharf" 2000 pastel/paper 76 x 56 cm
P90 "CSR Sunset" 1998 oil/canvas 61 x 91 cm
P91 "CSR Refinery" 1994 acrylic/paper 76 x 56 cm
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P90 "CSR Sunset" 1998 oil/canvas 61 x 91 cm
P91 "CSR Refinery" 1994 acrylic/paper 76 x 56 cm
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Two views of the CSR Refinery, which is now the Jackson's Landing development.

P80 "Pyrmont Power Station from Mill St 1"
1991 mixed media/paper 76 x 56 cm
P35 "Pyrmont Bond Stores
(‘Darling Island Bond and Free’ 12 Pyrmont st)"
1996 ink/paper 30.5 x 40.5 cm
Enquiries about these paintings
Two evocative ink and wash drawings are hung at the end corner of the room.
The glitzy Star Casino has now replaced the brooding ruins of the Pyrmont Power Station.
However, in contrast the bond store at no. 12 Pyrmont street, known as "Darling Island Bond and Free" has changed so little that I can't believe that nearly 2 decades has passed since I drew this moody ink and wash sketch.

P90 "CSR Sunset" 1998 oil/canvas 61 x 91 cm
P91 "CSR Refinery" 1994 acrylic/paper 76 x 56 cm
Enquiries about these paintings

HCT13 "The 'Southern Cross' from the Harbour Control Tower "
2007 gouache/paper 30 x 50 cm
P120 "Jones Bay Wharf" 2000 pastel/paper 76 x 56 cm
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P36 "Ways Terrace from Lower Jones Bay Road"
1993 ink/paper 31 x 41 cm
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P103 "From the roof of Pyrmont Power Station
1994 oil/canvas 92 x 122 cm

P214 "Sydney Harbour from the top of the

Pyrmont Power Station(building Star Casino)"

1997 oil/board 40 x 89 cm
Enquiries about these paintings
The red ship in the background is the notorious ‘Tampa’, painted several years before the refugee incident.

P97B "Tumbledown cottage, 95 Pyrmont st (now demolished)"
1994 ink/paper 22 x 30 cm
P31 "Jones Bay Wharf, 1" 1997 ink/paper 30.5 x 40.5 cm
Enquiries about these paintings

P92 "Industrial Cathedral 2" (‘Cooperage’, CSR Refinery)

1998 oil/canvas 92 x 61 cm

P97B "Tumbledown cottage, 95 Pyrmont st

(now demolished)" 1994 ink/paper 22 x 30 cm

P31 "Jones Bay Wharf, 1" 1997 ink/paper 30.5 x 40.5 cm
Enquiries about these paintings
An added bonus is that the Australian National Maritime Museum is very close to the sites where most of my paintings were created, so the viewers only have to step outside for a moment to grasp how much the landscape of the inner city suburb of Pyrmont has changed over the last 30 years.
Glimpses of Pyrmont's half forgotten industrial past can still be discerned through the manicured lawns and towers of high rise, but only if you know exactly what to look for.

Related posts

See interview at "Visit Pyrmont/Ultimo" website

2012 Classic and Wooden Boat Show- Australian National Maritime Museum

Wrong side of the tracks

If you enjoy my Pyrmont paintings please contact me or the Frances Keevil Gallery.

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
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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
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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
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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

Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Recently I have been painting yet another magnificent ruin from the notorious Wakil collection of derelict buildings.
The Wakils, who also own the Terminus Hotel and the old milkbar on the corner of John and Harris Street seem to be obsessed with playing a 30 year long game of Monopoly...with real buildings.
This is the Darling Island Bond and Free Store at 12 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont.
My first drawings and paintings of this building date from nearly 30 years ago, and the changes are almost imperceptible. On the southern side, windows were cut into the brickwork during the 1980s. The plane trees have grown so that they obscure my view of the row of charming 1880s terraces next door. The residents of 14 Pyrmont St had planted ivy which crept up the wall, but later they cut the ivy and it died off before it could continue its conquest.

Otherwise it is as though I have been sent back in the Tardis to the Pyrmont of the 1980s.

Painting "Darling Island Bond and Free"
en plein air, in front of 27 Pyrmont Street
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Originally this bond store was home of "Australian Thermite Company Pty Ltd" and must have been built either just before the First World War or during its first few months.

As far as I know, the cutting for the Pyrmont Goods Line which curves around the north of this building dates from about 1911-14 (?) so the Bond store would have been built around then. It also has a faint whiff of the utilitarian 'Federation Free' style architecture seen in other red brick storehouses around the Pyrmont peninsula such as the Royal Edward Victualling Yards.

My painting of "Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
on my french box easel, in Pyrmont Street
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Thermite is a mix of aluminium oxide and another metal oxide (usually iron).

It was used for welding in-place of thick steel sections such as locomotive axle-frames so that the repair can take place without removing the part from where it has been installed.

"Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
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A thermite weld is spectacular.

Molten metal drops into the mould in a blinding flash.

The still glowing edges are trimmed still glowing and then polished until you can't see the join with the steel rail on either side.

It is a very traditional work process, first patented in the 1890s, but it would still have been the last word in modern technology when 12 Pyrmont Street was first built.

Painting 12 Pyrmont st,

from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012

Enquiries
Rail under stress can easily buckle.
Thermite can be used for quickly cutting or welding steel such as rail tracks, without requiring complex or heavy equipment.
However, thermite welding must be done carefully as defects are often present in such welded junctions.
Also the rails must remain straight, without dipped joints, which can cause wear on high speed and heavy axle load lines.

P271 'Darling Island Bond and Free,
12 Pyrmont street' 2013
oil on canvas 46 x 46cm
Available

Thermite is not technically classed as an explosive, however anyone who's watched a certain early episode of 'Breaking Bad' will appreciate its force and effectiveness!

Back in those days living next door to a Bond store full of thermite would definitely have qualified as living "on the wrong side of the tracks".

Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012

I'm not sure when the "Australian Thermite Company" building became the "Darling Island Bond and Free".

It must have been at least a couple of decades after its construction, as I have seen some unfortunately undated photos which must have been taken after 1916, but before 1948, as they show the empty yard to the east of the original 1904 Power Station building before the second power station was completed in 1951.
The faded letters "Darling Island Bond and Free" can still be just made out on the south and east side of the building.

Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012

I'd like to thank the people who took photos of me while I was painting and sent them to me. Unfortunately their emails bounced and they used nicknames so I don't know how to personally credit them, but I'm grateful as I was far too hot and tired to cross the street to take photos.

I'd also like to thank the occupants of number 14 Pyrmont Street for reviving me with kindness and their excellent coffee while I was painting on an extremely hot day.
I displayed this painting in the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery
The opening was on Saturday 1st December 2012, from 5-7pm.
The exhibition continued until 31st December 2012
FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
Bay Village, 28-34 Cross Street Double Bay, NSW 2028
Hours M-F 10am-5pm Sat 10 - 4pm Sun 11-4pm
ph/fax: 02 93272475 mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au
Page of Jane Bennett paintings

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Pretty vacant

A Tale of 2 Pyrmont Hotels

Milky Bar kid - 74 Harris St

To the Point

Half finished canvas on the easel
"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "
2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
Last week I returned to a painting that I had started 2 years ago but had left half finished due to having to complete other projects.
I had painted the two hotels from this viewpoint on the corner of John and Harris Streets countless times before. I still had several canvases of the Terminus but I especially wanted to paint a panorama giving equal space to the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels.
59 versus 61 Harris Street Pyrmont - the old versus the new Pyrmont, divided by the striding legs of the Anzac bridge looming over the towers of Jackson's Landing.




Half finished canvas on the easel
"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "
2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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janecooperbennett@gmail.com

I had completed a similar canvas from this viewpoint about 2 years ago, but had sold it almost immediately to a local couple who had met each other at the Point Hotel.


Half finished canvas on the easel
"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "
2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
In the first photo of the work in progress, the previous colour scheme of the "Pyrmont Point Hotel" from 2 years before is still visible. The strange faded plum tone reminded me of an over-ripe version of the once ubiquitous "Paddo pink" in the first wave of gentrification that spread all over the 1980s inner city. It clashed horribly with the dark crimson awning.
Now it is under new management, with a brand new colour scheme to mark the change. The walls are a more subdued and elegant pale yellow green, with awnings and window frames in chocolate. One effect of the new wall colour is to make the "ghost sign" of the hotel's original name the "Royal Pacific" more apparent.
Meanwhile the Terminus hasn't changed a bit.

Half finished canvas on the easel

"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "

2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

I spent the first afternoon repainting the walls of the "Pyrmont Point Hotel" to the new colour. It probably would have been quicker and easier to just start a completely new canvas.

The practice of plein air painting often results in many half finished and potentially unfinishable canvases, so that you have to grit your teeth and accept it as an inevitable part of the process. So many elements are beyond the artist's control that plein air painting becomes hopelessly frustrating if you can't cope with "unfinished business".
I love being able to revive a canvas that I have had to turn face to the wall for weeks, months or even years.

Half finished canvas on the easel

"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "

2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
By the end of the first day, I had the basics blocked out and the canvas only needed the finishing touches.
And just as well.
When I delivered another work to the Frances Keevil Gallery, I discovered that a couple from Pyrmont were extremely interested in this painting. They had actually watched me while I was painting it!
Unfortunately they were due to leave Australia the next week.
I would have to complete the painting by Wednesday at the latest if it was going to be dry (well... dryish!) by Saturday, when the clients came in to the Frances Keevil Gallery to view it.
I don't think that they realized that it was an oil painting and they were cutting it a bit fine if it was to be finished, dry and ready to be delivered.


Half finished canvas on the easel
"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "
2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

It was Tuesday.

And there were many distractions.
I love chatting to people as I paint. I get to meet interesting people and learn a lot of fascinating things about the location.
But I was under a bit of time pressure and I must admit that I was worried.
The painting looks almost finished in this photo, but the final touches which can make or break a painting are very fiddly and it's perilous to rush them.
One of the most important of these was the "ghost sign" of the Pyrmont Point's previous incarnation as the Royal Pacific. Another vital detail was the light coming from the interior of the Pyrmont Point which contrasted with the dead heart of the Terminus.

The artist with local resident Van Le

with the nearly complete canvas

"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "

2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Tuesday seemed to be an extremely busy day on the corner of John and Harris St.
I became a bit of a tourist attraction. Here I am with Van Le, a local resident.

The artist with local resident

Francis Lee with the nearly complete canvas

"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "

2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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janecooperbennett@gmail.com
And with Francis Lee, another local resident, who kindly took these pictures of me in action.

"The 'Terminus' versus the 'Pyrmont Point Hotel' "
2012 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I needn't have worried.
The painting was completed.
And the couple loved it and bought it.
Apparently one of the pair had been covertly watching me paint the finishing touches on this canvas from a safe distance at the pub opposite.
I'm glad that I didn't know that at the time or I would have suffered stage fright.
I actually think that this painting turned out better than the one that I had painted 2 years before. Mind you, I've certainly had quite enough practice painting these pubs. The first time was about 30 years ago - doesn't time fly when you're having fun!
Also watching me were 2 photographers who were checking out the Terminus. They took a few photos of me (no makeup, covered in paint from head to foot, looking like a bag lady...oh well!) and chatted about the charms of urban decay as I desperately tried to finish my commission. Like many photographers, they seemed more interested in the freshly squeezed oil paint on my palette than the actual canvas. The process not the result.
Check out the photos they took of me and my painting here at the blog on their site.
Tristan Stefan Edouard Photography
For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels 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
 

Spin me round

'You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round...'
"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" a song by the British band Dead or Alive. which was released as a single in 1984, the first UK No. 1 hit produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
Not long after the last workers from White Bay Power Station left, never to return.

WBPS66 'Spin me round' (record player from
recreation room in White Bay Power Station)
2009 oil on board 51.5 x 25.5cm
Available
The Record player from the Recreation room of the White Bay Power Station is the epitome of Jolie laide "ugly beautiful"
This horrible, yet oddly fascinating object was old and decrepit even back in the days when 'Dead or Alive' recorded their cheesy classic.

Record player from recreation room
in White Bay Power Station
It comes from a "lost" entertainment hall in a forsaken building - equal parts creepy and beautiful.
The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority had taken ownership of the White Bay Power Station in 2000, but were unaware of this hall's existence for several years.

Recreation room in White Bay Power Station
As you can see from my photo, this room was a time-capsule from the 1950s - murals, the old record player and even a pool table.
The record player sat on the canteen counter, still connected to the room's PA system, ping-pong tables were folded in the middle of the room and murals on the wall had survived.

Recreation room in White Bay Power Station
In this photo, you can see the very kind security guard in the background by the pool table.
In July 2011, shortly after these photos and my painting were done, the record player and pool table were removed, as well as 6 tonnes of pigeon droppings.This was part of a frantic clean out before one of the rare open days.
I was very lucky to be able to see this in situ, and even luckier to have enough time to paint it before it was taken out of its natural context.

Record player from the recreation Room in White Bay Power Station
This was the last time I saw it before it was taken away to be put into storage.
They left it on the ground outside, so I could paint it one last time , waiting for some curator of the future to rediscover it and find a purpose for it.
Waiting for whatever the future holds for the White Bay Power Station.
Art Gallery, funky bar, museum,offices, block of flats?
Tunnels and tollways will encircle it, the schmick new yet-to-be-built fishmarkets will be its neighbour.
The White Bay Power Station remains strangely still and silent in the eye of the tornado of change.
The redevelopment of the surrounding area spins around it.
Like a record, baby, Right round round round...'

Related Posts

Artist in Residence at White Bay Power Station

Artist in Residence at White Bay Power Station Part 2

Tower of power

Inside Out (Inside the White Bay Power Station)

Power House