Marine Art Exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum

 Australian National Maritime Museum

I will be exhibiting these paintings at the  Australian Society of Marine Artists exhibition at the "Wooden Boat Festival"
WHEN: From 10 am - 4pm Saturday 16th October and Sunday 17th October 2010
WHERE: at the Australian National Maritime Museum
EVENT: Wooden Boat Festival
These are some of the paintings which I will be exhibiting on the October 16-17 weekend with the Australian Society of Marine Artists exhibition at the "Wooden Boat Festival"
The Australian Society of Marine Artists are a group of artists and others interested in marine and maritime art : painters, lithographers and printmakers, sculptors, model-makers and historians. Every painting style from traditional to contemporary, realist to abstract is represented : ships, seascapes, maritime history and heritage.

'The 'Spirit of Tasmania' departs for the last time

from Darling Harbour' 2006

oil painting on canvas 25 x 31 cm

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This painting is of a landmark in the history of Sydney Harbour - the final departure of the 'Spirit of Tasmania 3" from the East Darling Harbour Wharves in October 2006.
The 'Spirit of Tasmania 3" , (nicknamed 'Spot' by all the wharfies) was later sold to an overseas shipping line and I have heard that she has been renamed and is in use as a ferry in the North Sea.
The 'Spirit of Tasmania" numbers 1 and 2, are still in Australian waters, but their journeys are between Melbourne and Devonport. Occasionally they come to Garden Island, Sydney Harbour dry dock for repairs and maintenance.

The Sydney Heritage Fleet's tall ship, the 'James Craig' and Wharf 7, Pyrmont can be seen in the background.

The last journey of the 'Spirit of Tasmania 3'
It was an atmosphere reminiscent of the last day of school. People running around taking photos and swapping addresses. Manic excitement, regret, and a strange undercurrent of foreboding about what the future may bring.
To add to the sense of occasion was a touch of glamour. Added to the usual queue of cars and bikes waiting in the sun was a line of lovingly restored vintage cars, bound for a rally in Tasmania. In one of the many paintings that I started that day, I featured a green Rover and its patient driver in the foreground. I certainly had enough time to paint them as they were sitting in the queue from 9.30am to 2.30pm when they were finally allowed to drive on board. The Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, later acquired this canvas.
Everything that wasn't nailed down was hauled off and dragged on board. I mean 'Everything that wasn't nailed down' absolutely literally and not as a lazy cliche. I had been storing some canvases and easels in a little shed and suddenly had to leap up from my wet painting and rescue them from making an unscheduled visit to Tasmania. I nearly lost my cup of coffee which I had left perched on a concrete barrier when forklifts started to load all of the concrete onto the ship.

"'Endeavour ' Tall ship race -Australia Day"
oil painting on canvas 20 x 25cm

Available  

A close up of the 'HMB Endeavour', one of the 'Tall Ships' making its way back to its mooring after the Tall Ships Parade on Australia Day 2007.

This was painted from the East Darling Harbour Wharves (now called Barangaroo) while the area was still a working port.

'The Tug 'Karoo' 2006

oil painting on canvas 28 x 36 cm

Available

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

Pyrmont Paintings past and present My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2 

My exhibition at the 2010 Sydney Open

Beyond the Sea

2012 Classic and Wooden Boat Show at the Australian National Maritime Museum

Art exhibition : Recent Paintings of Barangaroo by Jane Bennett

From Barangaroo to Double Bay :
Paintings Now on Display at the Frances Keevil Gallery until 8th October 2010

"I saw the number '8' in red... "2010  
oil painting on canvas  51 x 76cm
  Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"Out of time " oil painting on canvas 31 x 31 cm

Enquiries about this painting

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"May Open without warning" 

(Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8)

2010  oil painting on canvas 51 x 76cm
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Painted from a similar viewpoint as "May close without warning..."

"MAY CLOSE WITHOUT WARNING (Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8)"
oil painting on canvas 51 x 76cm
  Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"Night, 'Pacific Jewel'  from the
bridge of the Maersk Gateshead" 2010 

oil painting on canvas 61 x 91 cm

Enquiries about this painting

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time 
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo" 2010 
oil painting on canvas 
36 x 46 cm
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo"
Diptych Left hand canvas 2010
oil painting on canvas 25 x 51 cm each
Total image size 25 x 102cm
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time 
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo"

Diptych: 2010 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm each 
Total image size 25 x 102cm
 Enquiries about this painting

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"The 'Pacific Jewel ' at the new temporary

cruise ship facility at Darling Harbour"

Diptych- 2010 oil painting on canvas

25 x 51 cm each 

Total image size 25 x 102cm

Enquiries about this painting

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

See my post :  Barangaroo paintings of 'Pacific Jewel'

Related posts

 I saw the number '8' in red...

'Maersk Gateshead' last container ship

 Barangaroo terminal -'Out of time' 

May close without warning

Not the Writers Festival- Exhibition of Pyrmont Paintings

Why the hullaballoo about Barangaroo?

Storm warning, Goat Island

'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'

Art exhibition : Recent Paintings by Jane Bennett (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

Cut off (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

A Tribute to 'The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work' by Alain de Botton

Theory versus Practice
Alain de Botton, I feel as though I have been unknowingly illustrating your fine book all of my working life!
Naturally as a realist plein air painter, the chapter about the realist plein air painter spoke to me most directly. Very few art critics and even fewer philosophers have ever valued the empirical point of view, i.e. the experience of what actually happens as opposed to their pristine theory of what should happen. I could not name a single other living art critic or philosopher who has bothered to observe from close quarters what is actually involved in the creation of a work of art. The labour involved, the struggle with materials and the entire process is always taken for granted or even treated with disdain. The work of art is expected to appear as if by magic on the gallery wall, and increasingly the 'idea' or theory is given the respect formerly due to the artist's skill and the actual 'work' is carried out by nameless assistants.
De Botton is the only writer in recent memory to bother to accompany an artist on the long journey from the idea to the completed canvas on the gallery wall. Some art critics have visited the homes or galleries of wealthy and famous art collectors, but de Botton is certainly the only one to visit the home of an ordinary person who happened to recently purchase a painting to try to understand their motives and observe their interaction with their new purchase. De Botton is also the only writer with the patience to watch an artist at work and the only one to attempt to understand what that work actually involves.This wonderful chapter is full of respect, tenderness and wryly understated humour, and I was deeply moved by it.

See my page on this blog : 'The Hungry Mile ' where I quote from his chapter on cargo ship spotters.

Barangaroo : Red Square, the Drill Rig and a little archaeology

Barangaroo:

'Red Square' oil painting on canvas

30 x 103cm 2011
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This canvas is still a little unfinished, but you can get the general idea of what I'm attempting to do here. It's an interior versus exterior painting, playing with light, transparency and reflections. Unlike the other doors in the loading dock, which are solid slabs of brilliant scarlet, these are translucent fluted sheets that both reveal and conceal the view. 

The "Red square" to the left was the bright scarlet entrance to the passenger walkways allowing access to the cruise ship. 

"The Red Square is haunting Painting"

In 20th century art history a famous quote about early abstract art was "The red square is haunting painting", about the work by Kazimir Malevich and similar Russian painters involved with "avant-garde" movements such as Constructivism and Suprematism during the 1920's. The red square has certainly haunted this building! It reminds me how quickly the 'new' and 'modern' passes into history. It is ironic how "Modernism" is now a historic term referring to the art of 50-80 years ago, and the architect of this former wharf has either deliberately or unknowingly raided its vocabulary!
De-construction of Constructivism! Art chasing its own tail.

In the background, realism intrudes into the chilly geometry with the two drill rigs of the geophysics team, Coffey and Macquarie Drilling.

The Drill Rig at South Barangaroo

"The Drill rig" 2010 oil painting on canvas 31 x 41cm 
Enquiries about similar paintings

A core sample is being taken on South Barangaroo, to make sure that there are no nasty little surprises when construction starts.
Incidently, all of Barangaroo is landfill.
When I painted on the K.E.N.S. Site (the "Kent, Erskine, Napoleon and Sussex street block " which is now the new Westpac headquarters) next to Moreton's pub (known as the 'Big House' by the wharfies) I saw steps that were unearthed that once belonged to an early 19th century Fingerwharf, and must have roughly coincided with the original shoreline. They were halfway between Kent and Sussex Street - so anything west of Sussex Street is fill.

You can see my paintings of the KENS Site on my Urban Landscape page.

Don't forget your toothpaste!

A couple of the men from Coffey and Macquarie Drilling have worked at the same sites that I have painted at!

These include the former A.G.L. Site at Mortlake, developed by Rosecorp (which is now known as 'Breakfast Point') and the Carleton United Brewery site at Chippendale, which is still underway.

One wet and miserable day at the Carleton United Brewery site, I was offered some of the old bottles and jars to paint by the archaeologists, instead of struggling through the mud laden with an easel to paint the chimney in the pouring rain.

A few weeks later, the archaeologists generously made their spare finds available for the construction workers to souvenir. I suppose that an old brewery site wouldn't lack bottles! I took a small selection of 19th century ceramic and glass bottles, including perfume jars, ink bottles and a big brown 'Geneva' bottle (mother's ruin or gin), but one of the men on the drill rig team had a real prize - a small ceramic jar with lacy craquelure that once contained an early 19th century version of toothpaste!

When we realized that we both were proud owners of these relics, I brought my paintings of the CUB finds and the bottles to Barangaroo and he brought in his toothpaste jar for me to paint.

See paintings of the Carleton United Brewery construction site on my post
Brewers Droop - Painting the Carleton United Brewery

My Carleton United Brewery still life can be seen on my 'Urban Landscape' page on this blog.

This is their 2nd last hole before the drill rig team pack up and leave Barangaroo.

Related posts

Brewers Droop - Painting the Carleton United Brewery

May close without warning

Eaten by Robots

Tie a yellow Ribbon

The Last of the Hungry Mile

Barangaroo - Tabula Rasa   

Another one bites the dust

The White Shed at White Bay

Painting International Fleet Review at Barangaroo
Painting International Fleet Review at Barangaroo Part 2
Storm warning, Goat Island
Barangaroo : Red Square (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)
Geophysics (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

Sydney Harbour Control Tower (The 'Pill')

Painting the Sydney Harbour Control Tower at Barangaroo

Painting the Sydney Harbour Control Tower

at Barangaroo : Art versus life

My canvas is sitting on top of my trolley luggage, which contains my essential equipment.

My paints, my brushes, my palette, my easel, my toilet paper and my lunch. It's a long walk back and the French box easel weighs over 10 kilos with the paint inside. All French box easels have annoying design flaws. With this one the easel legs have an alarming tendency to detach and whack me on the back of shins whenever I least expect it. Shoving it inside the trolley luggage was the best compromise I could come up with.

BAR53 'Barangaroo north -

The Harbour Tower, escarpment and Moore's Wharf'

2010 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm

Enquiries about these paintings 

Painting the Sydney Harbour Control Tower

at Barangaroo

While I was painting this, the radio station Nova was holding some kind of promotional event, on the knuckle of the northern end of Barangaroo.

It was a bit distracting and I felt a bit nervous leaving all of my things lying around at the mercy of the crowd whenever I had to have a loo break.

But they had set up a pop-up coffee bar in the middle of the wharf, so I'm everlastingly grateful to them as I love my coffee and never usually get a chance to drink any while I'm painting - it tends to go sour in a thermos and milk turns to yoghurt in the sun.

The Sydney Harbour Control Tower will still be used by Sydney Ports Corporation until their room in their spiffy new purple and silver headquarters at Port Botany has been fitted out in April 2011. I don't know whether there will be a role for the Sydney Harbour Control Tower in the new plans for Barangaroo. Hope so. I still have an easel and paint stashed on the amenities floor; I don't want to lose them.

BAR54 'Tower of Power'
2010 oil on canvas 61 x 61cm
Enquiries about these paintings 
 

View more of my Barangaroo paintings at my Barangaroo blog 'Painting Barangaroo'

Related posts

May close without warning

Eaten by Robots

Tie a yellow Ribbon

The Last of the Hungry Mile

Barangaroo - Tabula Rasa  

Gantry

Demolition of Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8

The Gantry

I had wondered if the gantries were to be kept intact and possibly recycled for use at the new cruise ship terminal soon to be built at White Bay.

Ironically they are instead about to be demolished by the very same man who built the orange gantry only 8 years ago.
More irony :
At the foot of the gantry is an incongrous inscription in fading and cracked fluorescent cadmium yellow capital letters :

"KEEP"

Breakfast in the ruins with my half finished canvas
of the last gantry of Wharf 8,
the former cruise ship terminal of Barangaroo

My painting of the last gantry of Wharf 8

View more of my Barangaroo paintings at my Barangaroo blog 'Painting Barangaroo'

Related posts

May close without warning

Eaten by Robots

Tie a yellow Ribbon

The Last of the Hungry Mile

Barangaroo - Tabula Rasa   

Another one bites the dust

The White Shed at White Bay

Terminal, End or Extremity

Paintings of the Arrivals Hall of the former cruise ship terminal Wharf 8 at Barangaroo.

These are unfinished oil paintings on canvas of the interior of the deserted former cruise ship terminal at Darling Harbour Wharf 8.
My first day of painting this canvas:

'I saw the number '8' in red... '
oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm
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Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings 

The title is my homage to the 1928 Charles Demuth painting "I saw the number 5 in gold..", an icon of American Modernism. Like Demuth, I never let go of reality.
Though not a physical likeness, Demuth used imagery from William Carlos Williams’ poem "The Great Figure," to create an abstract portrait of his friend. The intersecting lines, repeated "5," round forms of the numbers, lights, street lamp, and blaring sirens of the red fire engine speeding down the street infuse the painting with a vibrant, urban energy.

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city

"The Great Figure" William Carlos Williams

'I saw the number '8' in red... '
oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm
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Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings 

The 2nd day of this painting- nearly finished, but needs glazing to emphasize the reflections and the dramatic shafts of light from the doorways.

The completed painting: "I saw the number '8' in red... "2010  

oil painting on canvas  61 x 91cm 
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Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings 

Starting my 2nd painting of the interior of the Arrivals Hall:
Setting out a rough idea of the composition:

"I saw the number '8' in red" 2010
oil painting on canvas  61 x 183cm
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Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings 

Starting work on a large panoramic interior of the Arrivals Hall.

This is a Saturday, and apart from the bored security guards on the gate I have the whole place more or less to myself so it is eerily silent.

For a change I have managed to get here early.

I've been battling a killer bout of flu for over a month and I've had to push myself to keep working. My throat has been so sore that I can only eat jelly and chicken soup for the last week.

I've taken in a thermos of icecubes to numb my throat and they seem to help. Whinge, whinge. This is totally self inflicted- I've been painting outdoors in the middle of winter on a freezing cold wharf in a howling gale and to misquote Alice in Wonderland it is bound to disagree with you sooner or later. However I wouldn't swap what I do for anything; it keeps me endlessly fascinated.

I only wish that I wouldn't get ill just at this crucial point in the history of Sydney Harbour - this is the last wharf on the historic Hungry Mile, which has been the fountainhead of Australia's maritime industry since settlement over 200 years ago, and it will be demolished in less than a fortnight!

No other artist in Australia seems to have an MSIC or a greencard; so I am the only person permitted to paint any of this.

Half way through my 1st day of painting :

"I saw the number '8' in red" 2010
 oil painting on canvas  61 x 183cm
Sold 
Private Collection : Sydney

Enquiries about similar paintings

Work in progress on the easel at the end of the first day.

I saw the number '8' in red" 2010
oil painting on canvas 61 x 183cm
Sold
Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings

I have used 'terminal' as part of the title of paintings in this series as a play on words. The following nuances of meaning I found particularly apt :

1.situated at or forming the end or extremity of something...
2. occuring at or forming the end of a series, succession, or the like; closing; concluding
7.pertaining to or placed at a boundary, as a landmark.
8. occuring at or causing the end of life: a terminal disease.
9.(Informal) utterly beyond hope, rescue or saving...
10. a terminal part of a structure; end or extremity.
13. a station on the line of a public carrier,as in a city centre ... where passengers embark or disembark...

(Courtesy of Dictionary.com)

Take your pick!

Related Posts

The last of the Hungry Mile

Barangaroo - Tabula Rasa

Eaten by Robots

There goes the neighbourhood

See more at my Hungry Mile page

See more at my Millers Point page