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

Tie a yellow ribbon

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a streetscape of Merriman Street, Millers Point.

These colourful terraces are just next to the Barangaroo Headland Park, and at the time of painting, still lay in the shadow of the now demolished Harbour Control Tower, which actually used to have an entrance on Merriman street directly opposite the terraces in this canvas. The Palisade Hotel is just at the end of the street.

They face west and I caught them in the full light of the setting sun to enhance their faded gelato colours so reminiscent of the dilapidated charm of urban Cuba. I kept expecting to hear the Buenavista Social Club from every doorway.

They also reminded me of streetscapes by Jeffrey Smart and Edward Hopper. Behind the colourful facade is a threatening storm.

I painted this canvas 'en plein air' in 2014 during the protests of the Millers Point residents against their forced eviction from the area. 

 

MP11 'Merriman st' 2014
oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Available

Sharp eyed viewers will be able to see yellow ribbons tied to the doors. A yellow ribbon had been used to mark a building destined for demolition, during the original Rocks clearances in the late 19th - early 20th century. The current residents adopted and repurposed this symbol to signal a building where the occupants were threatened with eviction.

MP11 'Merriman st' 2014
oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Available

The early 20th century slum clearances in Millers Point and the Rocks were performed under the pretext of saving the city from bubonic plague. The early 21st century clearances were of the community rather than the architecture, under the guise of economic rationalism.
First the maritime workforce, then the surrounding community was dispersed.

Until recently, the inner city had been regarded as a crowded, squalid slum, so the rich flocked to the suburbs. Now this has reversed, and the poor are pushed to the periphery. The city is spoilt rotten for resources and transport, while the hinterland has been starved.

MP11 'Merriman st' 2014
oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Available

The value of Millers Point didn’t just lie in its architecture, but in its strong community spirit and long history.

Nearly 200 years of its colourful maritime past has been swept away with barely a token gesture to its previous existence.

Since this canvas was painted, most of Millers Point has passed into private hands, and many of the workers cottages were transformed into short term rental Air B'n'B. Ironically, due to another outbreak of plague (Covid 19 this time, not bubonic) almost exactly a century later, these short term rentals are now mostly vacant and from March to mid June 2020 the Isolation restrictions turned Millers Point into a ghost town.

Related posts

The Mother Art is Architecture

Banners, Millers Point

In the shadow of the Bridge -Night Observatory Hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a nocturne painted from Observatory Hill.

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available
I've often painted the Rocks and Millers Point from this vantage point.
When I used to teach art classes, I'd give everyone a map of the best spots to sit so they could avoid having to include the Blues Point Tower!

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available

This view looks straight down Lower Fort Street where I have also frequently painted the heritage terraces, the Garrison church, the Harbourview and 'Hero of Waterloo' hotels.

Some of this collection are on my Miller's Point page in this blog.

It's a postcard perfect Sydney Harbour scene during the day. but at night the shadows make it evocative and mysterious.
The tales from the rowdy and sometimes sinister era of the Rocks 'Push' don't seem to be quite as distant at night!

O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm

Related Posts

Vivid

No Place like home

Tie a yellow Ribbon

Sydney Bus Museum - painting Daimler doubledecker

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a portrait of MTT Daimler CGV6 112 at the Sydney Bus Museum in Leichhardt. It has been under restoration to operating condition since 2016.

BUS11 Restoration of Daimler doubledecker

2017 oil on canvas 61 x 31cm

It's had a rough life.

It was one of 15 Daimler doubledecker chassis ordered for use in Sydney. However they were rejected because their 4.95m chassis didn't meet the required specifications of 5,33m. 
Then they were sold to the Metropolitan Transport Service, Adelaide. The 54 seat bodies were then built in Granville, and driven overland to Adelaide.

BUS11 Restoration of Daimler doubledecker

2017 oil on canvas 61 x 31cm

After being in service in Adelaide until 1960, no 112 was sold to a cattle station in the Coober Pedy area of South Australia.

In 1990 it was recovered for preservation - and driven over 1,000 miles back to Sydney!

It might have been too small, but it's tough!

BUS11 Restoration of Daimler doubledecker

2017 oil on canvas 61 x 31cm

I painted this on site in the Bus Museum at Leichhardt, and some of the volunteers are in the background.

BUS11 Restoration of Daimler doubledecker

2017 oil on canvas 61 x 31cm

  

BUS11 Restoration of Daimler doubledecker

2017 oil on canvas 61 x 31cm

See more of my bus paintings

The Manly bus, Sydney Bus Museum