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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Meltdown-Oxycutting, William Wallbank and Sons, Auburn

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

I've been painting the machinery before it is all stripped out and sent to a scrap metal yard.

AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry

2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo

Some of the ladles and other machinery that couldn't be sold intact were being broken up for scrap by oxycutting. 

During this exciting process, I painted some small and medium circular canvases, known as tondos.

In Art, the circular format of the tondo was often used for religious subjects.

Extreme chiaroscuro was also exploited by artists such as Caravaggio, to heighten the contrast between the gloomy background and the intensely illuminated saints or angels.

The fire in the dim interior gave the scene a mysterious atmosphere, reminding me of the nocturnal paintings of one of my favourite artists, Georges de la Tour.
Figures in his paintings are enveloped in shifting accretions of darkness - hands and features picked out by pooling, smoky light. 

AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry

2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"

Oxycutting is one of the oldest welding processes.

A torch is used to heat the metal to its kindling temperature. When it's cherry red, a stream of oxygen is focused on the heated part and chemically reacts with the ferrous metal, producing more heat and forming molten iron oxide which is then blasted out of the cut.

The melting point of the iron oxide is about half that of the metal being cut, so it will immediately turn to liquid iron oxide and flow away from the cutting zone.

AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry

2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"

Starting a cut in the middle of a workpiece is known as piercing.

Once it has started, steel can be cut surprisingly quickly, far faster than if it were completely melted through.

Sometimes remnants of iron oxide remain on the workpiece, forming a hard "slag" which can be removed by tapping or grinding.

AWW6 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry
2017 acrylic on paper 56 x 76cm

The hottest part of the flame is approximately 6,000 °F (3,300 °C) - hot enough to easily melt steel.

But the flame of the cutting torch is not intended to melt the metal, just bring it to its ignition temperature.

The rest of the heat is created by the burning metal itself.

AWW5 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry

2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo"

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A basic oxy-acetylene rig is faster than a petrol-driven cut-off grinder, as well as lighter, smaller, quieter and not as prone to severe vibration. 

Oxy-acetylene torches can easily cut through ferrous materials as thick as 200 mm. 

However oxy-acetylene has its limitations. It can only efficiently cut low- to medium-carbon steels and wrought iron.

High-carbon steels aren't suitable because the melting point of the slag is closer to the melting point of the parent meta.The slag from the cutting action mixes with the clean melt near the cut, which means the oxygen doesn't reach the clean metal to burn it. With cast iron, graphite between the grains interferes with the cutting action of the torch. Stainless steels can't be cut either with this process, because the material doesn't burn as easily.

AWW7 Oxycutting, William Wallbank + Sons foundry 2

2017 oil on canvas 46cm tondo

Painting this was fascinating, but there was an undercurrent of sadness, as it

marked the point of no return.

The life of the former foundry was at an end, and its vivisection will be the last fires lit inside.

"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice."

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

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Shadowboard

A shadow board is one of the most common options for tool storage found in amateur and professional workshops and sheds the world over. Its noble aim is to organize the workplace so that tools are near the work station where they are to be used.

Work in progress on the easel
E135A 'Shadowboard - No Brake' 2017
oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

Shadow boards have the outlines of a work station's tools marked on them, so operators can quickly identify which tools are in use or missing.

As well as providing easy access to tools,they are supposed to reduce time spent searching for the correct tool; to reduce losses due to carelessness, lack of proper maintenance or theft; to improve work station safety as tools are replaced safely after use, rather than becoming potential hazards; to reduce clutter; and to maximize the space available.

Work in progress on the easel
E135A 'Shadowboard - No Brake' 2017
oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

Well that was the Platonic ideal anyway.

The dream of imposing order on chaos is often cruelly exposed as exactly that - a dream, when reality kicks in.

How should a shadowboard be organized?

Sounds so easy and straightforward, but it reveals fundamental and often irreconcilable differences in temperament, age and level of expertise, and can be the source of perpetual bickering, even long-running feuds.

Work in progress on the easel
E135A 'Shadowboard - No Brake' 2017
oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

Should it be organized by type of tool (all spanners, screwdrivers etc grouped together), by size (aesthetically pleasing to have a hierarchy of tools descending by size, but not necessarily the most practical), by frequency of use (commonly used tools in the middle where they are easily removed or replaced) by ease of removal /replacement (large, awkwardly sized or heavy tools placed where people don't have to reach up or down for them) or by what is required for common tasks (a particular size of wrench/saw/hammer/screwdriver etc are often needed together for a task that crops up frequently).

Sometimes it can even be a passive-aggressive wish list, like a recent commercial for a hardware line of products where empty outlines were left for needed or desired tools, either in hope of a future financial windfall or thoughtful gift.

E135B'Shadowboard with 44 class diesel
-(Do not pull all way out) '
2017 oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

The usual result is a hotch potch of all the above.

Jumble of the useful, the once useful and now obsolete, the broken bits, the spare parts that 'may come in handy'; the lost, strayed and some frankly useless items that seem to breed unchecked in dark corners. When, if ever, were any of these used? Last week? Last century?

Work in progress on the easel
E135B'Shadowboard with 44 class diesel
-(Do not pull all way out) '
2017 oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

I used metal panels to paint on instead of my usual canvas, leaving the metal bare when the tool was shiny and well maintained, and only painting the non-metallic or rusty parts. The work above also includes a 44 class diesel lurking in the background.

The faded, naive lettering found on cryptic signs create abstract yet evocative grids of letters and word fragments, colour and text fading into meditative, elegiac compositions.

Other mysteries abound. As this is a workshop filled with tools and presumably people who know how to use them, why did someone bother to write "Do not pull all way out" on the drawers of the cabinet beneath, instead of fixing the drawer?

I'm no handyperson, but even I can fix drawers - it's fiddly but not that hard.

E135A 'Shadowboard - No Brake' 2017
oil on metal panel 51 x 51cm
Available

A massive Marie Kondo attack has been carried out in the Large Erecting Shop to tackle decades of clutter. Nothing to do with sparking joy.

Everything deemed not strictly necessary to the re-purposing of the Large Erecting Shop as a running shed is being given the old heave-ho - best case scenario sent to Thirlmere, worst case - the skip.

I was chased from one end of the shed to the other, as wherever I set up my easel, I seemed to get in the way. I was hunting for a quiet corner as the situation brought out crankiness in normally laid back people. I was incessantly asked "why I was painting this rubbish instead of the trains", but most of the trains will still exist somewhere, while this sort of subject, evoking the true spirit of the workshop, is ephemeral.

But fashions change as to what is deemed 'necessary' and unique and quirky items can be lost or destroyed in the rush to impose order on chaos..

In the Large Erecting Shop the shadowboards are no longer functional as no repair or maintenance will be carried out there.

Ghost boards with ghost signs for ghost trains.

They show the never to be filled outlines of lost tools for lost purposes.

Headstones of the workshop.

More paintings of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

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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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