Eveleigh Windows - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 3

Hidden Beauty

E85 Eveleigh Windows 2011 oil on canvas 51x 41cm

Sold : $2,400

Enquiries

The most apparently unpromising place can reveal unexpected moments of beauty. 

I feel sometimes that my paintbrush can act as a magic wand.

 A fleeting shaft of light can magically transform a pile of rubble or a dilapidated roof in a fraction of a second.

Image by Jane Bennett Artist via Flickr

Related posts in this blog

• Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 2
• Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 1

Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 2

Flaws in the Glass

E84 Eveleigh Windows 2011 mixed media on paper 76x 56cm

Available for sale : $4,500

Enquiries

I have painted in the Large Erecting Shop for many years now, and usually I have concentrated on the trains rather than the building itself, as the trains were there for only a short time. 
However the fabric of the building itself is to alter soon, so my focus has shifted.
I completed a lovely little oil on canvas of a nondescript corner of the building, but then I decided to concentrate on the play of light, as so little colour was visible. Then I thought, why not paint a series of works in black and white.
I was reminded of some of my favourite Lloyd Rees paintings, his series of the medieval stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Tools of the trade. Large bottle of black acrylic paint and a small bottle of water spray.
I paint with black and white acrylic paint, alternating with black Indian ink to produce areas of thin wash or impasto.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Then alternately tilting the enormous work from side to side to get the effect of the cracks in the glass by spraying the ink with water until it freely drips, then quickly laying it on the floor when I have the effect I want. 

High risk technique - really working without a safety net.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Then I take soft white Schminke pastel - so soft that it crumbles into powder- and broadly sweep it down the ares of the most intense light. With the palm of my hand I briskly smear it across highlights on the brickwork, then partially rub it off ink lines where I want cracks in the shattered panes to appear. 
Also a high risk technique, and very messy.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

This is next to the old signal box where I sometimes keep my easel. 
I have heard a rumour that they will paint the floors white!
I can't believe this!  They will still be using this area for trains - possibly even steam trains! There will be oil, diesel, soot all over the floor by the end of the first day! A white coloured floor will aid visibility only as long as it stays white, which probably won't be for long, whereas fixing the electricity and replacing some of the broken lights will go much further to reducing OH and S problems.
Well I had better make the most of working "wet in wet" with ink and pastel while I'm still able to put my painting on the floor before it all becomes too gentrified.

Painting E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011 ink, pastel, acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Most people looking at these works thought at first glance that they were actual stained glass windows from  St Mary's cathedral. 
But they are just windows with a lot of stains on them. Stains made by decades of hard work, accident, even a little vandalism.
The light transforms them into visions worthy of Chartres or Sainte Chapelle.
My dealer, Frances Keevil, only half-jokingly suggested that I enter one of these works in the Blake Prize for Religious Art. 

E78 'Window, Large Erecting Shop' 2011 ink pastel acrylic on paper 115 x 75cm

Available for sale : $7,700

Enquiries

' Eveleigh Window 1' 2011 mixed media on paper 131x 115cm.
Available for sale : $11,000

Enquiries: janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The completed drawing.

Related posts in this blog

• Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 1 

Eveleigh - (Very) Stained Glass Windows Part 1

One door closes...

Early in 2012 renovations started on some parts of the interior and exterior of the Large Erecting Shop at Eveleigh. New wooden doors made to the original pattern and drawings replaced the corrugated iron doors on all 6 roads.

Wrought Artworks, the blacksmith's forge, in Bay 1/2 south of the ATP  had their massive wooden doors replaced.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.

Available

I painted a series of paintings of the doors and windows of the Large Erecting Shop before their makeover.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm

Available

I have mixed feelings - I loved the brooding atmosphere and quirky imperfections caused by decades of soot, industry and vandalism, yet I'm glad that at least a token gesture has been made to respecting and conserving the building's heritage.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.

Available
However, apart from fixing holes in the roof, the improvements seemed to be restricted to the purely cosmetic rather than structural - the power, lighting and water supply, which could well stand some serious improvements, didn't seem to be on the list.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm

Available 

The strange skeletal silhouettes against the windows are the relics of old train seats stacked madly against the grill!
Shapes would emerge and sink back into the gloom as railway workers opened and closed the doors.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.

Available 
In the darkness I could barely make out the forms of motley bits of decades of collected junk; a shelf of old batteries sitting on rotting pallets,a couple of seats, a carriage window with panes of smeared and broken glass. This is flanked by a nest of ladders -I thought at first there were snakes behind them, but instead there is a cluster of bits of pipe. Around the base of the ladder to the right lie a stack of old brakes, which at first sight resembled blocks of wood.

Painting E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop'

2011 ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.

Available
But most of it is wonderfully incomprehensible and fabulously useless.

E77 'The corner windows, Large Erecting Shop' 2011

ink/acrylic on paper 131 x 115cm.

Available
The finished painting in glorious monochrome.

Related posts

The fire within

The slow return from the fire

ATP Open Day

Eveleigh painting page in my blog

Wrong side of the tracks

Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb

Irons in the fire - Part 6 -Better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

A Tale of 2 Prizes

Just returned to Australia from my exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, to find a little box of acrylics, sketch books and other art paraphernalia that had been sitting on my doorstep unnoticed.
As well as winning actual money as 2nd prize at the Royal Easter Show, some kind sponsor had thrown in some art equipment as well.

I could easily go through all the paint in those little tubes in a single afternoon, but all donations gratefully received!

E83 'Blacksmith forging '2011 
ink pastel acrylic on paper 9 x 10cm  
WINNER 2nd Prize for Miniature Painting 
2011 Royal Easter Show
Sold 
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com

When you add the cash amount to the cost of the box of paints, this tiny little painting actually won more than double its price in prize money ! I wish I could keep that standard up for every painting!

'The Blacksmith' 2011

oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com

However, my other equally worthy contenders for prizes got nowhere. 

A thorn in my side has been the so-called "Plein Air Painting" Prize. I doubt that I will ever bother entering again.

As I am one of the very few genuine plein air painters in existence, who doesn't just paint small studies but lugs giant canvases around wharves, demolition sites and foundries, to the bemusement of hundreds of surprised wharfies, blacksmiths and demolition contractors,  I consider this art prize a farce. The trouble is that after decades of painting swiftly in adverse weather conditions in front of workmen and passers-by, my works just don't have that clumsy slapped together look demanded by the organizers. 

My works rarely have much 'studio intervention' other than simple repair work ( bird dirt, insect,twig and dust removal ; and removal of grubby fingerprints from carrying them awkwardly) They have been painted quickly, but as these might well be the only records of a particular event or even an entire location, they have to look as though time were not an issue, or the lack of time an excuse for bad painting. In other words, they have to compete on their merits. 

Ironically, the same works entered in the Plein Air Painting Prize (not the ones shown here by the way) had won art prizes elsewhere in which the painting process was not an issue.

Now I've had good works chucked out of countless other art prizes and just laughed about it - I take a philosophical attitude.

The funniest occasion was when my rather nice watercolour of the Spit Bridge got thrown out of the Royal Easter show, and, wanting to get it out of my lounge room, I put it in the Wynne Prize for Landscape for a bit of a laugh. It promptly won the Trustee's Prize for Watercolour and the Pring Prize  - the joke was that if it hadn't been chucked out of the Royal Easter Show I would never have thought of entering the Wynne.

In all my years of winning prizes and selling paintings at the Royal Easter Show, getting my painting thrown out was the biggest favour they ever did me!

So why does this particular art prize stick in my throat? Because it is a Plein Air Art Prize.

I have never had a work hung in this particular art prize where I am quite possibly one of its few genuine practitioners. And I probably never will.

I have been told that my works don't have the 'look' of having been painted 'en plein air'. Yet they are. To be regarded as 'credible' my paintings should be messier, more thickly painted, more indecisive,dumber, clumsier, more unfinished, with less ambitious perspective and simpler composition and design. I have paid the penalty for my painting skill.

The works should be smaller as well- this art prize has the strange size restriction of being geared towards vertical work, with a generous vertical height limit of 2m but a horizontal one of only 85cm.

Because "nobody paints large canvases 'en plein air' !"

The predictable result is a bias towards a vertical grid of little studies. Fine, but one of the valid aspects of landscape painting has always been the "sublime"- the feeling of being overawed and overwhelmed, even physically threatened by the landscape. In this art prize there is no room for the heroic.

In short you mustn't challenge their preconceptions of what a plein air painting is. And I have no use for work that toes the line and does the 'expected'. I have been punished for my temperament as well as my skill in painting.

 I've seen artists (usually amateurs) paint outdoors in parks, gardens or the rural environment. But in all my decades of painting I have never seen anyone except Tom Carment tackle the urban environment we all mostly actually live in, 'en plein air'. I can't help feeling that artists  indulge in escapism by going off for expensive weekend retreats to the bush for 'inspiration' instead of noticing the hidden beauty closer to home.

So today I will take my unloved and unbelieved paintings  from the art gallery loading dock, back to the wharf, construction site or foundry where they were created. At least the truck-drivers, wharfies and security guards who watched me paint them, know how to appreciate them.

And they certainly do.

These works have now all been sold.

 E53 The Blacksmith Bay 1 Eveleigh

2011 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm
PRIVATE COLLECTION : SYDNEY
SOLD
Enquiries  : janecooperbennett@gmail.com

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)

A good Korea move : Part 2 "Together in Harmony"

The exhibition "Together in Harmony for 50 years",was part of the celebration event for '50 years of Friendship Between Australia and Korea' at the Noori and Arum gallery in the Korea Foundation Cultural Centre in Seoul, Korea. The opening was on 4 -7pm Friday 29th April 2011 and the exhibition will continue until 17th May 2011.

I was one of 106 Australian and Korean-Australian artists invited to display one work in this major international exhibition. I was also one of the 40 artists invited to display a work in the Bom Gallery, in the Cheongdam-dong gallery precinct in Seoul.

Me, outside the Korea Foundation Cultural Centre, in front of the poster for the exhibition

My painting is in the centre of this photo, 2nd to the right of the man closely inspecting the exhibits. My work was hung in a very good position, almost directly opposite the entrance. But all the works were hung and lit beautifully- there were no bad positions.

Lost in Translation
K.W.A.S.S., the Korean Women's Art Society, had kindly provided my ticket, accommmodation and some spending money, in return for a seminar on my own  painting processes and techniques and a brief history of Australian Landscape Painting. 

This sounds deceptively easy, but it is a lot of ground to cover in an hour. Actually Robert Hughes, Elwynn Lynn, John McDonald and many other famous art critics and historians have tried valiantly to capture the essence of Australian Landscape Painting in less than 500 turgid pages and half a lifetime's study. And mostly failed just within sight of their goal, like so many other intrepid explorers lost in the Australian outback.

As well, I had to submit my entire talk several days before, so that it could be translated into Korean. I hadn't realised that this would be necessary, as I knew that someone would be available as a translator. So for the first couple of nights, jet-lagged as I was, I had to sit up until 3.30 am writing and re-writing my seminar. I realised that I had to cut down on slang or idiom to make it as coherent as possible for the translator,Kim Tae Eun. Trying to find a rational explanation of Sid Nolan and the Kelly myth in 25 words or less close to impossible. It would probably have been easier to learn Korean.
I wonder how "Such is life" translates...

Usually, I like to speak without notes, just referring to images for inspiration, while I work without a safety net! I couldn't do that here, so I hope that the information was interesting enough to make up for any lack of spontanaeity.

I also showed a few photos of me painting "en plein air" at Barangaroo, which the audience seemed to respond to. When in doubt show a picture.

Related posts in this blog

• A good Korea move (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)

Ghost ship - ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe - Part 2

HMAS Adelaide was decommissioned in 2008 and prepared for scuttling as a dive wreck during late 2009 and early 2010.
Her mast was removed, dangerous materials and toxins were removed, and access holes were cut in the ship's flanks.
She was originally intended to be sunk on 27 March 2010, 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) offshore from Avoca Beach, in 32 metres (105 ft) of water.

"The ex-HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island wharf" 2010
oil on canvas 30 x 61 cm
Sold
By late 2009 the Baulderstone group had left the northern end of Glebe Island, leaving it clear for the ex- HMAS Adelaide.
At the southern end, the 'Thor Kis' arrived with cable which would later be laid under Port Botany.
McMahons Services started preparing the ex-HMAS Adelaide for scuttling, which was then earmarked for March 27th 2010.

'Salt Truck at Glebe, with the 'Thevenard'

2010 oil on canvas

15 x 30cm
Sold
I painted some other interesting visitors to the wharf.
In this painting you can see the ex- HMAS Adelaide lurking in the background behind a giant mound of salt being poured on the wharf from the salt ship 'CSL Thevenard'. This salt was then loaded into trucks and driven down to chemical plants at Port Botany.

Painting the 'Adelaide' on the wharf
Available

Painting the 'Adelaide' on the wharf
Available 
These 2 photos show me at work on the painting shown below. This large canvas, 61 x 183cm, really pushed the boundaries of what is physically possible in plein air painting.
When it became windy I would have to lie the canvas flat on the ground, or I would end up chasing it and my easel all over the wharf.

My easel and palette - gone with the wind !

Painting Ex-HMAS Adelaide at

Glebe Island wharf en plein air

Ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe Island wharf -

plein air oil painting

2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Available


"The ex-HMAS Adelaide on Glebe Island wharf"
2011 oil on canvas 61 x 183 cm
Available 
On the right hand side of this painting is the OES Barge. This finally left Glebe Island wharf for White Bay in June 2010, 1 day before leaving Sydney Harbour to lay cables under Botany Bay.
I had rushed to complete this, as some of the people on the wharf were quite interested in acquiring a work. I needn't have hurried, as a literally last minute decision pulled the plug on the scuttling.
Over a year of apparently interminable rolling legal action ensued before the end of the saga.
An appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by a local and vocal
protest group 3 days before the sinking saw the project placed on hold until the case can be heard in full.
The case was originally to have been heard on 5 May, but was then postponed to July.
Finally the federal judge, Justice Garry Downes, president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, approved the project but imposed stringent new conditions.
His decision ended a legal battle which had lasted almost six months. On 15 September, the Tribunal ruled that the scuttling of the ship could go ahead after the removal of any remaining wiring, canvas, insulation, and exfoliating red lead paint.
The delays caused by the tribunal hearing meant that instead of costing the original $5.8 million assigned to the scuttling project, the tribunal hearing, additional cleanup, and berthing fees brought the total cost to $8.5 million.
The ship was still there, looking a little forlorn until the dawn of April 11th when it embarked on its final triumphant journey to its final resting spot off North Avoca.

"Ex HMAS Adelaide departing Glebe Island at dawn"

2011 oil on canvas 112 x 183cm

Available 
Her last journey, accompanied by the 'Woona'. The other tug was hidden by the bulk of the ship.
I met up with her again in Terrigal, a couple of days before the sinking and painted her last moments before her new life as an artificial reef.
There was a dramatic viewpoint of her from a rocky cove beneath the imposing "Skillion".

'Ex HMAS Adelaide from the 'Skillion' at sunset '2011
oil on canvas 15 x 30cm sold
PRIVATE COLLECTION : TERRIGAL

"Ex HMAS Adelaide from the 'Skillion' the next morning"
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
Available
I also painted her from a lookout next to the surf club at North Avoca Beach.

"Ex HMAS Adelaide from North Avoca" 2011
oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available 

Painting "Ex HMAS Adelaide from North Avoca" 2011
oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available
Ex HMAS Adelaide was finally successfully sunk at midday on Wednesday April 13th. As if all the previous nail biting suspense hadn't been enough, there was over an hour long wait for an inquisitive pod of dolphins to move out of the area.
I watched and sketched its final moments above water barely 300 metres away from Andrew MacMahon's huge white boat "Strictly Business, which you can see in the distance in the painting below.
The next day I painted the same spot where the ship had been from the same vantage point next to the Skillion.


Painting the Adelaide from North Avoca 13th April 2011

''Strictly Business' from the 'Skillion' Terrigal

(Adelaide underwater) '

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available 
For a long time it had seemed as though the ship would remain in limbo.
All the drama was worth it in the end.
It has succeeded as an artificial reef beyond the wildest dreams of its creators.
Recently I was painting a commission at Chowder Bay, Clifton Gardens, which is the headquarters of SIMS, the Sydney Harbour Institute of Marine Science. The marine scientists raved for hours about the wonderful diversity and abundance of marine species newly inhabiting the artificial reef.

Related Posts

Ghost ship - ex-HMAS Adelaide at Glebe - Part 1

Ship to Shore - Australian Marine Artists Society exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery

Beyond the Sea

Two Ships in dock

Tugs, barges and tall ships

From the Tampa to Strictly Ballroom

See my Hungry Mile page in this blog

For more paintings and information about the ex-HMAS Adelaide:

See my White Bay Wharf / Glebe island Wharf page in this blog