Half Nuts

 I'm sure this title will resonate with most people's feelings at the moment!

"Half nuts" certainly isn't too far from my current state of mind, so I thought this would be an appropriate painting to resume my Covid lockdown gallery on the deck.

E132B Half nuts 2017 oil on canvas 20 x 25cm

 

 

 

 

However the title should really be "Half-inch nuts"!

This small canvas of rusty old oil cans, was from a series of still life studies painted in the Large Erecting Shop of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops. 

The inscriptions in the background of half, three quarter, five eighths and seven eighth inch nuts, were on a tool box in front of a work cabinet. Needless to say, none of the sections contained any nuts at all, so it was a brave but doomed attempt to impose some sort of order into an assortment of motley widgets. People had obviously been putting tools back into whatever came to hand for quite some time.

During lockdown, I've been making a half-hearted attempt to organize my own shed and sort the useful items from the potentially useful, and the downright rubbish that mysteriously accumulates. I hopefully attach labels as I go, then cross them out if I have too many widgets or not enough. If there's anything that doesn't fit in an obvious category, but isn't quite rusty or broken enough to toss out, I put it in a large wooden box labelled "half nuts" in honour of my time at Eveleigh.

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Painting the industrial past on Cockatoo Island - Before and After

Cockatoo Island, the largest island in Sydney Harbour, is located at the intersection of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers. It is the last vestige of the era of the Industrial Revolution remaining in Sydney.

CK8B & CK52 Crane & slipway from the Officers headquarters
1989 & 2007 oil on canvas 61 x 46cm

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Between 1839 -1869 Cockatoo Island was a prison colony.

The inmates not only excavated the 2 tunnels and 2 graving docks that nearly bisect the island, but to add insult to injury they even had to build their own gaol using the excavated sandstone of the island! The only successful escapee was bushranger Captain Thunderbolt (his more prosaic real name was Fred Ward), who escaped on 19th September 1863.

After its stint as Sydney's 'Alcatraz' the island was used as a graving dock,  reformatory and industrial schools, and a major shipbuilding site.
In the early twentieth century Cockatoo Island became one of Australia’s most important industrial sites where ships were built, repaired and modified. Thousands were trained and employed there. I still meet people who did their apprenticeship as a boilermaker or fitter and turner on Cockatoo Island.

As the progressive removal of tariffs, regressive government policies, the high dollar and the pressures of globalization helped kill off Australian manufacturing, the focus of employment has turned increasingly to tourism, entertainment and service industries.

Most of Sydney’s former sites of industrial and maritime activity have now been gobbled up by developers for monolithic dormitories of beige apartment blocks. After many political battles, some remaining industrial structures of Cockatoo Island have been retained, against all odds. Although some large workshops, slipways, wharves, residences and other buildings remain, such as the Turbine Shop and the Mould Loft, many major buildings were demolished after Cockatoo Island closed as a dockyard in 1991.

Now it's a UNESCO world heritage site and its industrial ambience has been exploited for many cultural events. It was the site for the filming of X Men Origins -Wolverine and several 'reality' programs. Since 2008 it has been the flagship venue of Sydney’s Biennale. However, its original function as part of Sydney’s rapidly disappearing Working Harbour, has gone forever.
When I was 'Artist in Residence' there in the mid-late 1980s and then again in the early 2000s, I was the only artist on the island.

For the last decade, the public has been allowed to visit the island, but when I painted the 2nd canvas in 2007, it was still off limits. The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust was frantically fixing up the infrastructure to be able to open it to tourists. I would travel by barge at the crack of dawn from Mort's Dock with the other workmen.

CK8B 2 Cranes on the North-West Slipway
1989 oil on canvas 61 x 46cm
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I started painting on Cockatoo Island in the mid 1980s when it was still operational and submarines were still being refitted there.

I'd have to sign the Official Secrets Act and promise faithfully not to paint any submarines or sell any of my paintings to the Russians. I'd leave my easel, paints and table in the office of the Ship Painters and Dockers building between Fitzroy and Sutherland docks.

There was a sign "Pro Painter Foreman" on the door, which always made me laugh. I was so naive that I didn't know anything about the reputation of this notorious union!

These two canvases were painted at the same location,the north - western slipway, at the same time of day, at the same time of year and on the same format canvas - but 18 years apart.

CK52 Crane & slipway from the Officers headquarters
2007 oil on canvas 61 x 46cm
Enquiries

The most obvious difference between the 1989 and 2007 paintings is the omission of the pale green crane, a casualty of a storm not long after the 1989 canvas was painted.

This was the Butters crane, purchased from the Whyalla Shipyards in 1979, when Cockatoo Island was trying to adopt more innovative strategies,for the construction of HMAS Success in 1983-4. The rather forlorn looking crane left on its own in the 2007 painting, was the ex- West Wall crane, also a comparatively recent addition to the island, as it was relocated from Garden Island in the 1970s.

This partial modernization was a false dawn, however, as HMAS Success would be last ever ship built and launched at Cockatoo Island. Less than 8 years later, the island was closed.     

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Article written by Steve Meacham in the Sydney Morning Herald

Oils ain't oils- Painting Still Life in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

A still life typically depicts inanimate subject matter. 

It was initially despised as the most lowly form of painting. But every still life is a memento mori.
Memento mori is Latin for “Remember that you must die”.
I've delved into the long tradition of the ‘still life’ genre, which celebrates the magic power of painting an arrangement of commonplace objects to reflect on ideas of mortality.
When captured in paint, they are imbued with a life beyond the ordinary.

"Vanitas” elements reveal the emptiness of material pursuits and futility of earthly ambitions.  

The Latin noun Vanitas literally means “emptiness” and the central theme in these paintings is the Christian view of earthly life and the futility  & worthlessness of all ambition.

I love to paint “useless” things from industrial sites, the minutiae of everyday life. There's a poignant quality in this “rubbish”, so trivial to most. These remnants provide me with an endless source of subject matter. There are no people in these pictures but their presence is always felt. History, memory and observation provide the bones of the story.

E130A Oils ain't oils 1 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm

Available for sale  

These rusty old oil cans from the interior of the Large Erecting Shop in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops truly are symbols of transience. They will be discarded and thrown into the skip bin as soon as I've finished my canvases. I've won them a stay of execution with my paintings.

E130B Oils ain't oils 2 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm

Available for sale 

They contained the necessary ingredient to lubricate engines to keep them moving. Literally, to make something go. 

And they went.

Locomotives won't be repaired and maintained in the Large Erecting Shop for much longer. The best possible future for it will be as a running shed where only exactly what is strictly necessary to run trains will be tolerated. All else will be relocated at best, or discarded at worst. If it doesn't become a running shed, Mirvac and Channel 7 are lurking just outside to finish it off.

E130C Oils ain't oils 3 2017 oil on canvas 10 x 10cm

Available for sale   

Behind the oil cans was a board with inscriptions "1/2 Nuts", "5/8 Nuts", "3/4 Nuts","7/8 Nuts", which always made me laugh. You don't have to be totally nuts to work her, just half.

E132 Oils ain't oils 2 2017 oil on aluminium panel 51 x 51cm.

Available for sale 

I've concocted different methods for reproducing variety of surfaces  by experimenting with painting on metal panels.
This works well with the rusty cans - I leave the metal bare of paint and only paint in the rust.

This technique pays homage to the distant past.

When light rebounds from a matte surface, the irregularites of the surface scatter the light. However when light strikes a smooth polished surface such as metal there is a gleam, shimmer or lustre which can even reveal the shape of the original light source. Medieval students of optics called the depiction of reflected light in a painting "splendour". Light was not only regarded as beautiful, but also deemed to be sacred. This quality of light was difficult to reproduce in painting. Early medieval artists would rely on the inclusion of reflective and precious metals such as gold leaf, until the development of oil painting in the 15th century allowed artists like van Eyck the ability to create the illusion of reflection by superimposing thin translucent layers of colour. 

The workmen trained in the Eveleigh Railway Workshops were master manipulators of metal, so in these still life paintings I am using both these artistic traditions to capture every nuance of their lost tools.

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Steady rest

I've been painting the machinery in the William Wallbank and Sons ex- foundry in Auburn, before it is all stripped out and sent to a scrap metal yard.

Work in progress -

AWW8 'Boys toys -Steady rest 1'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

I've been painting a series of still life studies on salvaged "press plates".

These leftover circles of mild steel were found lying on the machine shop floor, and were being gathered up to be thrown away.

AWW8 'Boys toys -Steady rest 1'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

It was fascinating painting the relics of industry on salvaged objects that were part of the waste product from that industry.

The lustre of the smooth metallic surface shows through every brushstroke, reproducing every sparkle, shine and glimmer of the knobs and finials.

Work in progress - AWW11

'Boys toys -Steady rest 2'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available

Although the William Wallbank foundry dated from 1932, some of the machinery was much older. I found a nameplate on one from "Russia", which meant that it must have dated from before the Soviet era, and probably from before World War I.

AWW11 'Boys toys -Steady rest 2'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The steady rest on a lathe, has a frame and 3 adjustable jaws to support a workpiece such as an axle or a shaft while it is being turned, milled or drilled.

It prevents slender, flexible pieces springing back and forth, and also allows deep cuts, drilling, boring, or internal threading.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW10 'Boys toys -Boring machine'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The over arm with the top jaw can be unfastened and swung out of the way so that pieces can be removed and replaced without needing to adjust the jaws.

There should be 0.001 inch clearance between the jaws and the workpiece.

The bearing surface is usually machined directly on the work.

AWW10 'Boys toys -Boring machine'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

When the work is too small or awkwardly shaped to machine the bearing surface, a 'cathead' can provide the bearing surface.

The cathead has a bearing that is surfaced, a hole through which the work extends, and adjusting screws to fasten the cathead to the work.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

When it isn't possible to hold the work in the chuck, one end can be supported by the headstock centre and the other by the steady rest.

A leather strap or rawhide thong is used to tie the work to the driveplate and to prevent it from moving off the headstock centre.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo

16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

After the locking screws on the adjustable jaws are tightened, the bearing surface needs lubrication with heavy oil before turning on the lathe.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo

16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The bearing surface and adjustable jaws always need a heavy oil film between them, as when the workpiece heats up it will expand, closing the distance between it and the jaws.

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control' 2017

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm

Available

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Scar Tissue

Exploring disused manufacturing can sometimes be a bit depressing – all that decay, all those jobs that no longer exist, all that busy industry that has gone.
I have been painting in the increasingly empty Large Erecting Shop of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops, as they are being slowly stripped of all but the barest essentials,
leaving desolate floors and abandoned walkways.
Echos follow your every move, mimicking and daring you to make your presence known.

'Release' 2017 oil on canvas 41 x 31cm

Enquiries 

Painting is less documentary, more subjective,definitely slower and more labour intensive than photography.

However these qualities can be assets as well.

The painter has to select one image showing a definitive moment and yet implying others, to reveal layers of meaning that reward further viewing.

A bit like an onion. And sometimes it can make you want to cry.

I value the quality of authenticity, of being a witness.
This practice of painting on site produces a more genuinely felt memory of my experience and an understanding of the location’s properties and mood, providing me with a truer record of the colour palette than photography.

'Release' 2017 oil on canvas 41 x 31cm
Enquiries

 

With the removal of so many items, I focus intensely on what remains. Instead of panoramas of the interior, I am working on a series of close ups of details I have previously overlooked, attempting to preserve what is left of the once chaotic jumble of relics of over 100 years of railway history.

The paint itself can give a feeling of the volume and presence of the scene being painted.
Texture such as rust, stains or water damage can be scraped back with a palette knife or engraved into the surface. The term for this is “sgraffito”.

'Release' 2017 oil on canvas 41 x 31cm
Enquiries

 

The colours and textures, crumbling render, faded pigments, verdigris, scrapes and scratches – the scar tissue that stand witness to moments in time and history, may be lost in the rush towards the future.

More paintings of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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The now derelict 'William Wallbank and Sons' was a foundry on the Parramatta Road, Auburn, dating from 1932.

One of their specialties had been making the components for brick making machines.

AWW1 'Watching the forge fires fade 1
 'William Wallbank + Sons' 187 Parramatta Road'
2016 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

In 2008 I exhibited a series of paintings that I had created of old brickworks at Eastwood, St Peters and Brookvale at the Museum of Sydney during the book launch of "The Brickmasters"  , a comprehensive history of brickmaking in Australia by Ron Ringer.

Several of my paintings of Brickworks at Brookvale. Eastwood and St Peters were included in this book. At the launch I met Frank Wallbank, who invited me to paint in the foundry, but unfortunately I delayed taking up his offer.
A friend alerted me to the foundry's closure and I was able to contact the new owner and arrange access to paint. I am kicking myself for not getting there while it was still working, but better late than never!

AWW2 'Watching the forge fires fade
('William Wallbank + Sons' )
2016 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Highly Commended 2016 Auburn Art Prize
Available

 In a foundry, metal is melted into liquid in a furnace.

To cast the metal into shapes, the molten liquid is then poured into a mould in the shape of the desired part.
Simple designs can be made in a single piece or solid pattern.

More complex designs are made in two parts, known as a split pattern, which has a top section, or "cope", and a bottom section, called a "drag".

Patterns can be made from wax, wood, plastic, or metal.

AWW2 'Watching the forge fires fade
('William Wallbank + Sons' )
2016 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Highly Commended 2016 Auburn Art Prize 
Available

Traditionally, moulds were poured by hand, using ladles. It must have been horrifically dangerous.
I was told that all the foundry workers were supposed to wear a special sort of protective covering over their boots, similar to old-fashioned "spats" to stop the molten metal droplets burning their skin, but these were unpopular as the metal would still find a way to trickle down the gap and into their boots. Instead of protecting, the boot covering seemed to cause even more damage.

AWW2 'Watching the forge fires fade
('William Wallbank + Sons' )
2016 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Highly Commended 2016 Auburn Art Prize 
Available

Now modern foundries use robots or automatic pouring machines to pour the molten metal.
As the metal cools it solidifies and then the mould (known as a 'casting') is removed.

AWW2 'Watching the forge fires fade
('William Wallbank + Sons' )
2016 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Highly Commended 2016 Auburn Art Prize
Available

My canvas of this set of 3 abandoned ladles was recently runner-up in the 2016 Auburn Art Prize, held in the Peacock Gallery opposite the Botanical Gardens.
The central ladle has a capacity of 7 tons, and is flanked by a "three tonner" on the left, and a "four tonner" on the right.

AWW3 'Watching the forge fires fade  3-
'William Wallbank + Sons' 187 Parramatta Road'
2016 oil on canvas 51 x 71cm
Available

All of these ladles would date from at least 70 years ago.

They could even date from the earliest years of the foundry, as they are all rivetted, so they must date from a time before welding had replaced rivetting. 

Only the largest ladles were fitted with brakes to help modulate the flow of pouring the molten metal.

AWW4 'Rust Bucket' 7 ton ladle,
William Wallbank + Sons foundry 
2017 oil on canvas 122 x 91cm
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY

I'm only able to gain access to paint in my strange new "studio" when the gates are opened to remove machinery, and I need to ring up on the night before.

Sometimes potential new owners come to inspect the premises, but they rarely stay for long.

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