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

No 'glamping' on Cockatoo Island

This is a painting of the Utility crane in front of Sutherland Dock, Cockatoo Island.

CK36'Cockatoo Island- Crane, Sutherland Dock and the escarpment'
2006 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
Enquiries

For the last decade, the public has been allowed to visit the island, but when I painted this in 2006, it was still off limits.

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust was frantically fixing up the infrastructure to be able to open it to tourists. I would travel by barge at the crack of dawn from Mort's Dock with the other workmen.

CK36'Cockatoo Island- Crane, Sutherland Dock and the escarpment'
2006 oil on canvas 75x100cm
Enquiries

In the afternoon, I had to make sure I didn't miss the last barge back to the mainland, or I'd have to spend the night there.

Now there is 'glamping', but back then there were no facilities at all! No tents, no shelter - I occasionally spent the odd night in a tunnel, which was creepy. There wasn't even drinkable water & we all got terribly sick until we learnt to bring our own water!

CK36'Cockatoo Island- Crane, Sutherland Dock and the escarpment'
2006 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
Enquiries

20 years before, I had painted on the island, near the end of its life as a working shipyard.

Related Posts

Painting the industrial past on Cockatoo Island

More paintings of Cockatoo Island

Isolation Gallery- Walsh Bay

Today's painting featured in my Isolation gallery is from over 20 years ago. It shows the redevelopment of Walsh Bay Wharves.

W33 'Walsh Bay Wharves from Wharf 8-9'

1999 oil on canvas 61 x 101cm

I was 'Artist in Residence' at the Woolloomooloo Fingerwharves during their redevelopment & refurbishment in the late 1990s. Many of the same construction workers later worked on the transformation of Walsh Bay Wharves a couple of years later, so they inherited me as 'Artist in Residence'.

I painted the derelict, fire-ravaged and soon to be demolished Wharves 6-7  from the interior of Wharf 8-9.

The green netting and bright yellow boom contrasts with the red brick and weathered timber of the wharves.

W33 'Walsh Bay Wharves from Wharf 8-9'

1999 oil on canvas 61 x 101cm

I can't believe how much this area has changed since this painting!

Barangaroo has replaced the East Darling Harbour Wharves, aka 'The Hungry Mile', one of the last relics of Sydney's Working Harbour. 

The residents of Millers Point have mostly been relocated, & the area almost resembles a ghost town.

W33 'Walsh Bay Wharves from Wharf 8-9'

1999 oil on canvas 61 x 101cm

More at my WALSH BAY WHARVES page on this blog

 

Paintings of a passing Port 

 

The last of the Hungry Mile 

 

Barangaroo - tabula rasa

Isolation Gallery on the deck - Ex HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, my wings have been clipped.

I'm caring for my elderly and very frail mum at home, so even when restrictions are relaxed, my obligations as a carer mean I'll still be very restricted in the amount of plein air painting I can do.

Paintings on the deck

I've used my enforced downtime to repair old paintings. When canvases are taken to exhibitions and handled a lot they can get scuffed at the edges.
I'd spent the start of the Covid season putting up a pergola over the front deck so it would be a nice breakfast nook. But it's been really useful as.a studio extension as it's sheltered from rain and all but the fiercest winds.
I started putting some large canvases out there to dry after repairs, just to get them out of my way so I don't trip over them.

Down the side of my garden is a walkway to the local park and I noticed a few people staring at the paintings. I did this for a few weeks, but when I didn't have anything on the easel for a couple of days they asked me to put some paintings back up.

A3 Ex HMAS Adelaide late afternoon panorama
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm                            
A25 'ex HMAS Adelaide sinking'
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm

The galleries are shut, so I thought 'Why not? At least it gets them out of my studio'
Since then I've had a different painting every day on the deck gallery. Sometimes two if they have a connection to each other.
I choose at random - it's a chance to wander through my past.
Enjoy.

A3 Ex HMAS Adelaide late afternoon panorama
 2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm

This is a sort of before and after pairing.

The Ex HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island being stripped of most of her interior fittings before scuttling, and a small painting of her scuttling off Terrigal.

A25 'ex HMAS Adelaide sinking'
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm

See the posts about these paintings

"Two ships in dock"
"Ghost Ship Part 2" 
"Ghost Ship Part 1"

Selfie at South Eveleigh (Watching the forge fires fade)

I don't usually paint self portraits, but this is the exception.

I've been asked to exhibit in "Selfie", an exhibition of self portraits by artists who don't normally specialize in portraiture.

I have painted myself in front of the largest surviving forge remaining in Australia, the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop

"Selfie" is on display from 11th - 26th May at 1047 Gallery, 1047 Botany Road Mascot.

Opening Saturday 11th may 2-5pm, closing drinks 26th May 2-4pm.
 Open Saturday & Sunday 11 am - 4pm
0401 037 359     ten-forty-seven@mail.com

Invitation to "Selfie" Exhibition at 1047 Gallery

 

 E158 'Watching the forge fires fade'
 2019 acrylic on canvas 31 x 61cm

 

Available for sale

From 1886 until the 1980s, the Blacksmith’s Workshop produced equipment and parts for manufacturing and maintaining steam locomotives.

The modern blacksmiths of Eveleigh Works still use traditional machinery in homage to this bygone era of steam trains and handmade tools.

However, despite their much-loved status as icons of industrial heritage, the blacksmiths face an uncertain fate as a Woolworths will be built next door. 

In the maelstrom of inner city gentrification, blacksmiths are anachronisms; living fossils from the 19^th century.

Much like plein air painters, I suppose.

The deep shadows and dramatic lighting of the forge evoke the evocative, melancholy poetry of nocturnal scenes painted by my heroes Caravaggio, Joseph Wright of Derby and Georges de la Tour. Their nocturnes are ‘memento mori’ paintings contemplating  transience and mortality. The flickering flame will soon be extinguished. 

My canvas is cloaked in darkness, yet a flash of intense illumination throws eerie green highlights across my face. Behind me the blacksmith darts gracefully backwards and forwards in his dangerous dance with fire.

My face looms in the foreground towards the viewer, lost in thought. My gaze doesn’t meet the viewer directly, but peers intently at something just out of sight. Am I looking back in nostalgia to the past, or staring warily at an unknown future?

Related posts

Irons in the fire

Playing with fire

Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb
Strike while the iron is hot

Eveleigh- Industrial Heritage Artist at Work

ATP Open Day - Saturday, 25 Feb 2012
 Eveleigh paintings
The village smithy (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)
The slow return from the fire 
The fire within 
En plein air with street cred (sydney-eye.blogspot.com)