Blacksmith forging in the Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops

Today's painting on my isolation deck gallery is of one of the blacksmiths in Bay 1/2 of the Locomotive Workshops, South Eveleigh, Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

E93 Blacksmith quenching chisels,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops 2011

oil on canvas 152 x 122cm

This canvas is so large that parts of it are obscured by the railing and roof of my pergola.

However, I did paint it from life - nervously trying to keep my oil paint and turps out of the way of the blacksmiths who were swiftly carrying red-hot metre long metal chisels from the forge and quenching them in a vat of boiling oil!

As you do!

E93 Blacksmith quenching chisels,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops 2011

oil on canvas 152 x 122cm

I painted a series of blacksmith paintings from life and even exhibited them in Bay 1/2 while the blacksmiths were giving public forging demonstrations.

The blacksmiths at the time were part of 'Wrought Artworks' which had been founded by  Guido Gouvernor in 1991 just after the Eveleigh Railway Workshops ceased operations. He conserved the antique heritage machinery and kept it in working order so that they weren't static exhibits, but part of a working forge.

More recently, Matthew Mewburn of 'Eveleigh Works' has taken over this important and historically significant task.

The posts below include the stages of these paintings as works in progress on the easel, and some photos from several Open Days at the Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Related posts

Irons in the fire
Watching the forge fires fade
Playing with fire
Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb
Strike while the iron is hot
Eveleigh- Industrial Heritage Artist at Work
 Eveleigh paintings
The village smithy (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)
Time for Safety 
The slow return from the fire 
The fire within 
En plein air with street cred (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)

The Last of the Hungry Mile- Harbour Control Tower from East Darling Harbour Wharves

Today's canvas was painted from inside Wharf 4 in East Darling Harbour Wharves during the its last few weeks as a working port.

DH181 The last of the Hungry Mile   
2007  oil on canvas  180 x 122cm

FINALIST 2007 SULMAN PRIZE

The once bustling wharf became a ghost town, as the cargo-loading infrastructure was dismantled, the 3 shore cranes were loaded onto barges for Port Kembla or Webb Dock, and anything remaining was put into storage or into a skip bin.

The wharf has now closed forever and Sydney’s traditional role as a working harbour is nearly over.
For Sydney Harbour to be stripped of its original character and purpose, was almost unthinkable.

Abandoned places have a haunting beauty.
They are points of temporary stasis in the turning world of urban change.

It was eerily silent; waiting for the demolition to start and the genesis of Barangaroo to begin.

Barangaroo is about hubris - a grand feat of ambitious central planning in search of a purpose. The vaunted economic rebirth of the area has like so much else been sent into hibernation by the Covid crisis.

DH181 The last of the Hungry Mile   
2007  oil on canvas  180 x 122cm

FINALIST 2007 SULMAN PRIZE

The columns of light poles point towards the Harbour Control Tower, which was one of the last vestiges of the working port in the area, and was demolished a few years later.
This Port Operations and Communication Centre was a milestone in the history and operation of the Port of Sydney. The construction of the tower gave oversight of maritime operations over all the Port of Sydney for the first time.

Nestling underneath, on the escarpment is the historic Hotel Palisade, once a rough waterside early opener, now gentrified for the expected inflow of tourists to Barangaroo on the west and the revamped Walsh Bay Wharves to the north-east.

Why the Hullaballoo about Barangaroo?

"May close without warning"

The Hungry Mile  
Tie a yellow ribbon

Millers Point

The Manly bus, Sydney Bus Museum

Today on the easel of my isolation deck gallery I'm showing another from my collection of paintings created in the Sydney Bus Museum.

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

This was actually the first painting I started of the Sydney Bus Museum on my first visit in 2017, although it took me several visits to complete it.

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

It shows one of their most exciting restoration projects - the old 144 Manly bus, the 1926 'White', the first Government bus in NSW.

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

 

At that time, my family lived above their shop "Coopers" in the Corso, and my mum remembers catching this bus when she was very young. So when I saw this bus, it felt like a long lost family member!

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

The recently rebuilt drivers seat that was refurbished with a 2016 Transport Heritage NSW grant funding, has been trial fitted to the bus.

The original seat had unfortunately become rotten, so needed to be remade by the Bendigo Tramway workshops who were able to reuse the original base.

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

Robert Kendall is the master craftsman repairing the White's wooden skeleton with consummate skill.

He didn't realize it, but I was doing a sneaky portrait of him as he was so absorbed in his work!

BUS3 'Bob restoring the 1926 'White' 2017
 oil on canvas 51 x 76cm
Available

See more of my bus paintings

Sydney Bus Museum - painting Daimler doubledecker