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

Painting the 'Lady Hopetoun' in a quiet spot in the 'Ability Barges' yard next to the Sydney Heritage Fleet.
As the 'Lady Hopetoun' was the first vessel acquired by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, it seemed appropriate to kick off my residency in earnest with her portrait.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

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'Lady Hopetoun' a classic Edwardian VIP steam launch  was built in Berry's Bay and launched on 10th April 1902.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

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While she was officially described as a vice-regal steam yacht, not all her duties were so aristocratic. She was used as a relief pay boat, for small towing jobs and even ferried the children who lived on Fort Denison to school.
So even though she looks very stylish  with her low profile, raked lines and graceful counter stern, the 'Lady Hopetoun' was really a workhorse.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

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On the left of the 'Lady Hopetoun'is flotsam and jetsam belonging to Ability Barge Services, who are the real workhorses of the present day Sydney Harbour.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

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The hull of SS John Oxley looms in the centre of the background. To the left is part of the 'Kanangra', a dilapidated 100 year old ferry that the men's shed seem to have been restoring forever.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

You can see how I've chosen as my vantage point a sheltered nook in between a collection of large rusty pipes. The weather might gradually be warming up and Blackwattle Bay looks deceptively calm, but on the waterfront there is still a nip in the air.

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

starting my painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

Enquiries  

half finished painting of 'Lady Hopetoun' oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

$1,500

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Related posts in this blog

• Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 1
• "Lashed to the Mast" - Plein Air painting as extreme sport
• Storm warning, Goat Island

Related articles

• 'Lady Hopetoun' Article in Afloat.magazine May 2011
• 'Lady Hopetoun' page Sydney Heritage Fleet 
• The Artist in Residence Program at the Sydney Heritage Fleet 
• Painting the 'John Oxley' at the Sydney Heritage Fleet

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 1

I am a member of ASMA, the Australian Society of Marine Artists.
In 2008 the Sydney Heritage Fleet in conjunction with the Australian Society of Marine Artists inaugurated an Artist in Residence programme. 

starting my painting of 'SS John Oxley

 2012 oil on canvas 36 x 28cm

$1,200

Enquiries janecooperbennett@gmail.com

 Usually there is a sole artist appointed to be Artist in Residence for a period of 3-4 months. However this time no less than 11 of the female artists of ASMA (Suzanne Alexander,  Jane Bennett, Monika Brookes, Marijke Greenway, Jan Harrington-Johnson,  Christine Hill, Leonora Howlett, Brenda Kitteridge, Gwendolin Lewis,   Elena Parashko, Jan Sindel-Hand ) have been given the opportunity to have a stint as Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet.

starting my painting of 'SS John Oxley

 2012 oil on canvas 36 x 28cm

$1,200
Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

 Secure studio space has been provided on the top deck of the 100 year old ferry 'Kanangra', which is berthed adjacent to the Museum’s restoration and maintenance yard off the James Craig Road, Rozelle on Blackwattle Bay. The artists are given freedom of the site as well as other museum locations, to choose and record activities and the opportunity to travel in museum ships when they are operating.
As well as painting at their yard at Rozelle, we have been given the opportunity to paint the vessels moored at Wharf 7 and the Australian Maritime Museum.

With my almost finished painting of 'SS John Oxley'

$1,200

Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The first day was mostly devoted to exploring the yard and to receiving the necessary safety induction.

Almost finished painting of SS John Oxley

$1,200
Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

However I managed to squeeze in a little painting time and nearly completed a small study of the 'John Oxley'.
See the ASMA blog "Artist in Residence Programme"

Almost finished painting of SS John Oxley
$1,200

Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

There is a bewildering array of vessels to choose from - it's an embarrassment of riches. Some have already been lovingly restored, while others are still dilapidated and waiting for their turn.
 Although there are 11 artists, it will be a miracle if we manage to paint every one.
Our group of 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.
The official opening will be 2pm on Saturday 27th April by Tanya Plibersek MP.
Everyone is welcome!

Related articles

• Slipping away
• Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 2 : The 'Lady Hopetoun'
• "Lashed to the Mast" - Plein Air painting as extreme sport
• Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island
• 'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
• Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 6 - 'Hail, hail, the gang's all here!'
• Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet - Part 4 'Blowing in the wind'

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

Sea no evil? Painting the 'Sea Shepherd' at White Bay

The sign of the pirate, the snarling teeth on the bow and the spikes protruding from the helipad. 

Yes, the 'Bob Barker' from Sea Shepherd Australia was in Sydney until Friday.

I was there intending to paint the White Bay Transit Shed before its demolition, but the crew of the "Sea Shepherd", who were curious about the "Artist in Residence" on the wharf, challenged me to see if I could paint their ship while they filmed me. 

I picked up my easel and moved a bit closer to the ship, but out of the way of the crane delivering supplies for their Antarctic voyage. 

 

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm 

Available for sale

The "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" crew challenged me to paint their ship before their departure. 

Nothing like a bit of pressure! These 2 photos of me and my canvas were taken by some of the crew.

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" 

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

Available for sale

With my completed canvas of the "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" in front of the ship.

The ship's crazy paint job made it hard to discern its proportions against the blue sky and sea.

I don't know whether this helps to camouflage it or make it stand out against the backdrop of the icy Southern ocean.

The vessel didn't exactly have classical lines, and there were a lot of strange and fiddly details to cope with. Some of these I didn't really understand until after I had finished my painting and was given a celebratory tour of the ship. Strange yellow and black attachments turned out to be barricading to prevent easy boarding. Later in the afternoon more of these were attached to the upper deck helipad at a jaunty angle - giving the ship an even more raffish and piratical air.

 "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"  2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

Available for sale

I had completed the canvas of the "Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd" by mid - afternoon and here it is on my easel in front of the ship.

"Bob Barker - Sea Shepherd"

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm 

Available for sale

 

I started the canvas about 10.30 am and finished it by about 1.30pm, then spent a couple of hours having a guided tour of the ship. Unfortunately the next day was quite windy and I aggravated an old shoulder injury while chasing a runaway canvas that had been caught in a sudden gust of wind, so I missed their departure on Friday.

 

Related posts

Painting the 'Poolya' at Glebe Island

The White Shed at White Bay

 

"May close without warning" My solo exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery : Part 3- Meet the artist

May close without warning" will soon close!

On Saturday 29th October 2011 from 2-4pm, I'm giving an artist's talk about how and why I created this series of paintings

Please join us this Saturday 29th October, 2011

from 2 - 4pm, to meet JANE BENNETT

MW2 'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'

2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm

Available for sale
Enquiries about this painting

MW1 'Cleaning the boom in front of the 'Shirley Smith'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Available for sale

Enquiries about this painting

BAR8 'I saw the number 8 in red'
2010 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
SOLD
Enquiries about this painting

BAR7 'Red Square (Strange Customs)'
2010 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Available for sale
Enquiries about this painting

Related posts

May close without warning - Part 2 : "All that is solid melts into air"

Pyrmont : Shadows of the past

"May close without warning" Solo Exhibition, Frances Keevil Gallery

View from the ivory tower (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

Cut off (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

Transmogrify (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

My Paintings in the Xmas exhibition,  Frances Keevil Gallery (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

Ghost ship - ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe - Part 2

HMAS Adelaide was decommissioned in 2008 and prepared for scuttling as a dive wreck during late 2009 and early 2010.
Her mast was removed, dangerous materials and toxins were removed, and access holes were cut in the ship's flanks.
She was originally intended to be sunk on 27 March 2010, 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) offshore from Avoca Beach, in 32 metres (105 ft) of water.

"The ex-HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island wharf" 2010
oil on canvas 30 x 61 cm
Sold
By late 2009 the Baulderstone group had left the northern end of Glebe Island, leaving it clear for the ex- HMAS Adelaide.
At the southern end, the 'Thor Kis' arrived with cable which would later be laid under Port Botany.
McMahons Services started preparing the ex-HMAS Adelaide for scuttling, which was then earmarked for March 27th 2010.

'Salt Truck at Glebe, with the 'Thevenard'

2010 oil on canvas

15 x 30cm
Sold
I painted some other interesting visitors to the wharf.
In this painting you can see the ex- HMAS Adelaide lurking in the background behind a giant mound of salt being poured on the wharf from the salt ship 'CSL Thevenard'. This salt was then loaded into trucks and driven down to chemical plants at Port Botany.

Painting the 'Adelaide' on the wharf
Available

Painting the 'Adelaide' on the wharf
Available 
These 2 photos show me at work on the painting shown below. This large canvas, 61 x 183cm, really pushed the boundaries of what is physically possible in plein air painting.
When it became windy I would have to lie the canvas flat on the ground, or I would end up chasing it and my easel all over the wharf.

My easel and palette - gone with the wind !

Painting Ex-HMAS Adelaide at

Glebe Island wharf en plein air

Ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe Island wharf -

plein air oil painting

2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Available


"The ex-HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island wharf"
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183 cm
Available 
On the right hand side of this painting is the OES Barge. This finally left Glebe Island wharf for White Bay in June 2010, 1 day before leaving Sydney Harbour to lay cables under Botany Bay.
I had rushed to complete this, as some of the people on the wharf were quite interested in acquiring a work. I needn't have hurried, as a literally last minute decision pulled the plug on the scuttling.
Over a year of apparently interminable rolling legal action ensued before the end of the saga.
An appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by a local and vocal
protest group 3 days before the sinking saw the project placed on hold until the case can be heard in full.
The case was originally to have been heard on 5 May, but was then postponed to July.
Finally the federal judge, Justice Garry Downes, president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, approved the project but imposed stringent new conditions.
His decision ended a legal battle which had lasted almost six months. On 15 September, the Tribunal ruled that the scuttling of the ship could go ahead after the removal of any remaining wiring, canvas, insulation, and exfoliating red lead paint.
The delays caused by the tribunal hearing meant that instead of costing the original $5.8 million assigned to the scuttling project, the tribunal hearing, additional cleanup, and berthing fees brought the total cost to $8.5 million.
The ship was still there, looking a little forlorn until the dawn of April 11th when it embarked on its final triumphant journey to its final resting spot off North Avoca.

"Ex HMAS Adelaide departing Glebe Island at dawn"

2011 oil on canvas 112 x 183cm

Available 
Her last journey, accompanied by the 'Woona'. The other tug was hidden by the bulk of the ship.
I met up with her again in Terrigal, a couple of days before the sinking and painted her last moments before her new life as an artificial reef.
There was a dramatic viewpoint of her from a rocky cove beneath the imposing "Skillion".

'Ex HMAS Adelaide from the 'Skillion' at sunset '2011
oil on canvas 15 x 30cm sold
PRIVATE COLLECTION : TERRIGAL

"Ex HMAS Adelaide from the 'Skillion' the next morning"
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
Available
I also painted her from a lookout next to the surf club at North Avoca Beach.

"Ex HMAS Adelaide from North Avoca" 2011
oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available 

Painting "Ex HMAS Adelaide from North Avoca" 2011
oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available
Ex HMAS Adelaide was finally successfully sunk at midday on Wednesday April 13th. As if all the previous nail biting suspense hadn't been enough, there was over an hour long wait for an inquisitive pod of dolphins to move out of the area.
I watched and sketched its final moments above water barely 300 metres away from Andrew MacMahon's huge white boat "Strictly Business, which you can see in the distance in the painting below.
The next day I painted the same spot where the ship had been from the same vantage point next to the Skillion.


Painting the Adelaide from North Avoca 13th April 2011

''Strictly Business' from the 'Skillion' Terrigal

(Adelaide underwater) '

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available 
For a long time it had seemed as though the ship would remain in limbo.
All the drama was worth it in the end.
It has succeeded as an artificial reef beyond the wildest dreams of its creators.
Recently I was painting a commission at Chowder Bay, Clifton Gardens, which is the headquarters of SIMS, the Sydney Harbour Institute of Marine Science. The marine scientists raved for hours about the wonderful diversity and abundance of marine species newly inhabiting the artificial reef.

Related Posts

Ghost ship - ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe - Part 1

Ship to Shore - Australian Marine Artists Society exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery

Beyond the Sea

Two Ships in dock

Tugs, barges and tall ships

From the Tampa to Strictly Ballroom

See my Hungry Mile page in this blog

For more paintings and information about the ex-HMAS Adelaide:

See my White Bay Wharf / Glebe island Wharf page in this blog

Ghost ship - ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe - Part 1

'Ex HMAS Adelaide arrives at Glebe Island wharf' 
2009 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available

The HMAS Adelaide had a varied career-  the Australian response to the 1987 Fijian coups d'état, Iraq invasion of Kuwait, Indonesian riots in May 1998, the INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce, the War in Afghanistan, and the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

She rescued 2 competitors  in the 1996–97 Vendee Globe solo round-the-world yacht race when in January 1997, the yachts of Thierry Dubois and Tony Bullimore capsized. 

Her most notorious moment was in 2001 when she intercepted a boat known as SIEV 4 carrying suspected illegal immigrants, now known as the 'Children overboard affair'.

'Action men' 2009 
oil painting on canvas 31 x 31cm

Available

The men from 'Action Cranes' start to remove railings in the first sign of the flurry of activity to come. . 
I painted close up details of the men at work, as well as a panorama of the ship positioned between the pillars of the Anzac Bridge, with its strings providing a dramatic counterpoint to the mast. 

'Action men' 2009 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Sold
COLLECTION : ACTION CRANES

Enquiries about similar paintings- janecooperbennett@gmail.com

At this stage the ship was at the southern end of the wharf.
At the northern end, I had been painting Baulderstone Hornibrook's construction of a screed and shear leg for the Port Botany Expansion Project. I became  frustrated at middle management's mindless onerous conditions while painting this project, which seemed designed to prevent me painting anything interesting without  helping anyone's health or safety.

 'Action cranes with the Adelaide' 
2009 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm
Available

As a plein air painter who has been used to painting under conditions that would scare most artists out of 10 years growth, it takes a lot to annoy or frustrate me! Coping with Baulderstone's minions was too much like beating my head against a brick wall for me to continue painting their project, but it was a blessing in disguise.
I had no idea how gripping the saga of the ex-HMAS Adelaide would become.
On the extreme left hand side of the last painting in this post is a strange contraption with white columns. This was a drill rig starting exploratory drilling for the ill-fated Sydney Metro project, which was finally shelved in early 2010 after a great deal of controversy.
Soon the controversy surrounding the scuttling of the ex-HMAS Adelaide would even rival the debate over the Metro! 

See my Hungry Mile page in this blog
For more paintings and information about the ex-HMAS Adelaide:
See my White Bay Wharf / Glebe island Wharf page in this blog

Related posts

From the Tampa to Strictly Ballroom

Ghost Ship Part 2

Ship to Shore - Australian Marine Artists Society exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery