Power House

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

This canvas is 102 x 152cm, which is at the upper end of what the French box easel can safely handle. Fortunately today is sunny and quite still, as even a small breeze can make painting a canvas this size 'en plein air' a nightmare.

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

I've primed the canvas black as it's a good backdrop to intensify the colour of the rusting metal sheeting.

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

I'm trying to paint this canvas from the back to the front to increase the 3D effect. I painted the sky first, so the Power Station appears as a silhouette.

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Starting a new and very large canvas
 at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Starting a new and very large canvas
at the front of the White Bay Power Station
- at the end of my first day of painting
Sold
Enquiries about other paintings of White Bay Power Station

Sunset comes all too quickly in midwinter. The White Bay Power Station briefly turns golden in the last rays of the setting sun.
By the time I've packed up my easel, night has already fallen, making it even more difficult to put my large and very wet canvas into the back of my car without smearing it.

Also see my page in this blog :

White Bay Hotel/White Bay Power Station Paintings

Related posts

Inside Out

Tower of power

Power House

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 1

Steady Rest

Rust Bucket

White Bay Power Station : Inside Out

Work in progress on the easel
"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
As 'Artist in Residence', I'm painting the chimney stacks from inside the Boiler House of the White Bay Power Station.
It's so dark inside that it is difficult to take photos and I've never really learned how to use the flash properly.

Work in progress on the easel
"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
Painting inside the Boiler House is a strange experience.
I balanced the exterior space revealed by the open rusting door with the muted light coming through the window.
Under the window, sheets of rusting corrugated iron are also letting in some light as they are disintegrating at the edges and pierced with holes.
The parallel vertical lines of the window sheeting contrast with the horizontal pattern of the iron. The severe geometry is interrupted by a mad little squiggle of barbed wire perches on top of the corrugated iron sheeting with a baroque flourish.

"Inside the Boiler House of White Bay Power Station"
2011 oil on board 51 x 25cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
The White Bay Power Station has had many strange uses in its time.
After its official closure in the early 1980s, it had a strange afterlife as the site of mysterious scientific experiments for several years. There was a joint venture between the CSIRO and the University of Sydney and possibly other entities. I don't know exactly what it was all about, but it involved the use of thegiant turbines in the now defunct Turbine Hall. 3 out of 4 of them have since been removed, hopefully after the experiments came to a satisfactory conclusion.
This vast cavernous room is now about absence rather than presence.

WBPS82 'Interior of Boiler House White Bay Power Station'
2016 ink charcoal gouache on paper 106 x 121cm
Enquiries about paintings of White Bay Power Station
It does, however, rejoice in the world's largest fishbone fern which reaches through the infinite void towards the floor from the parrot beak of one of the huge coal hoppers.
It's a bit hard to tell which way up this huge drawing should be. It's sort of reverse vertigo - I feel dizzy from looking up, rather than down!
In later years the interior has frequently been used as a location for films, especially science fiction - the 'Matrix' especially springs to mind.
I know exactly what the future is going to look like - the interior of the White Bay Power Station!
The real future of the White Bay Power Station itself is as yet unknown. It is in limbo, waiting for a purpose, in search of another afterlife.


Related posts


Tower of power

Power House

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 2

Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station

Steady Rest

Rust Bucket

 
Spin me round

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2

Back to front Many local artists have painted the front facade of White Bay Power Station, but very few people have had access to the back or the interior, except on the rare open days.

Painting at the back of the White Bay Power Station

"White Bay Power Station from the back"

2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm

Enquiries

So this is a post about the hidden side of the White Bay Power Station.
Beside the closest chimney nestle some rows of old sandstone blocks.

They are leftovers from the alteration of the approaches to the old Pyrmont bridge.

The old Pyrmont Bridge was closed to all but pedestrian traffic by about 1979, as a prelude to the redevelopment of Darling Harbour from a railway goods yard to the its current state of a soul-less and seedy tourist trap and entertainment precinct.

Painting at the back of the White Bay Power Station

"White Bay Power Station from the back"

2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm

Enquiries

Sunset at the back of the White Bay Power Station. It was a sunny day, but the wind chill and sitting in the gigantic shadow cast by the Boilerhouse made this a three tracksuit day. I had to wear so many layers that I could barely move my arms!

The almost finished painting:
"White Bay Power Station from the back"
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 31 cm

Enquiries

Also see my page in this blog :

White Bay Hotel/White Bay Power Station Paintings

Related posts

Inside Out

Tower of power

Power House

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 1

Steady Rest

Rust Bucket

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station

Starting a new canvas on the site of the

now demolished Boiler House 2,

White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW

Available for sale

Back in the 1980's, I painted the White Bay Power Station while it was still operational.

In the 1990's, while the Pyrmont Power Station and Balmain Power Station were in the process of being demolished, I returned to the area to paint the Unilever site, the White Bay Hotel and the Goods Yard. While the Anzac Bridge was being constructed, I painted birds-eye views of the site from the summit of the western pylon. In 2000, the ownership of the site passed from Pacific Power to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). From 2002 - 2004 I painted exterior views of the Boiler House and monumental interiors of the Turbine Hall, one of which was acquired by the Mitchell Library, State Library of N.S.W. for their collection.

From 2008 I have been painting this magnificent relic from the wharves of Glebe Island and White Bay.

Now I've returned to the site itself as 'Artist in Residence'.

Starting a new canvas on the site of the

now demolished Boiler House 2,

White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW

Available for sale

The bright red belongs to some containers which are full of debris from some of SHFA's other sites. Bizarrely, one of these containers has been decorated with paintings of butterflies.

Starting a new canvas on the site of the

now demolished Boiler House 2,

White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW

Available for sale

This canvas was painted close to the railway corridor next to the old ash handling yard to the south east of the site.

I have chosen to explore the slightly less glamorous aspect of the site as the first paintings of my long awaited return to the site, rather than the all too familiar view from Mullens Street.

Every half baked photographer and his dog has an image or two of the iconic chimney stacks from the northern Balmain side. This is scarcely a challenge - far too easy. I know this building very well, inside and out, and have painted it and the surrounding area over the past 3 decades.

My paintings show the White Bay Power Station's subtler charms.

Starting a new canvas on the site of the

now demolished Boiler House 2,

White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW

Available for sale

In the foreground is the space where the 2nd Boiler House, built on the southern side in 1927, and demolished from 1975-1976.

Now this space is used for leftover debris from the clearing of Ballast Point, a former Caltex fuel depot, now a public park. I remember painting some of these relics on location at Ballast Point before its transformation in 2004-5.

Starting a new canvas on the site of the

now demolished Boiler House 2,

White Bay Power Station, Rozelle, Sydney, NSW

Available for sale

The imposing facade, even from the back has a stern grandeur and dignity found in castles and forts.

The dramatic shadow cast by this monolith is occasionally broken by glints of sunlight that touch weeds now infesting the vacant upper south yard, once home to the White Bay Hotel which finally succumbed to a mysterious fire in 2009.

"White Bay Power Station from the back 1" 2011
oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Available for sale

"White Bay Power Station from the back 2" 2011
oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Available for sale

Also see my page in this blog :

White Bay Hotel/White Bay Power Station Paintings

Related posts

Spin me round

Inside Out

Tower of power

Power House

Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station Part 2

Steady Rest

Rust Bucket