Don't blow your stack- Painting the Port Kembla Copper Stack Part 1

I've been meaning to paint the Port Kembla copper stack ever since I heard about it being listed for demolition.
The 198m stack was built in 1965 on the Port Kembla Copper smelter site, off Electrolytic Road between Military Road and Darcy Road.

The Port Kembla Copper smelter finally closed down in 2003. Despite PKC’s efforts to keep the site open as a tourist attraction, an application was made to have it demolished in 2010.
This application then suffered a lengthy delay when asbestos was discovered at the site. There were a few false alarms - there was a rumour that it would be demolished in April 2013, then again in September. I realised that this time it would actually happen and I hurried down there 2 days before to try to paint the stack from as many vantage points as possible.
Better late than never!
I made sure that I packed a lot of long skinny canvases.

Starting an oil painting of the 2 chimneys

of Port Kembla Copper on

Tuesday evening 18th February 2014

Available

When I arrived on Tuesday afternoon, I started painting the stack from just outside the fence around the ruins of Port Kembla Copper on Darcy Road at the former Gate 18.
There was an earlier brick chimney, built probably in the early 1900s, which I believe might be retained. I wanted to capture the two together in my painting, although I wasn't able to include it in this photo.
I managed to complete a small canvas (31 x 15cm) of the copper stack from Darcy Road. I was rushing to paint as much as I could before the light faded, so I didn't stop to take a photo of this in situ, but you can see it in the photo below, in front of the blank canvas.
It is a poignant image of the stack behind the ruined tanks, furnaces and the old gatehouse of Port Kembla Copper against the luminous evening clouds.

Starting an oil painting of the
Port Kembla Copper stack from Military Road
on Wednesday morning 19th February 2014
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Early on Wednesday morning I set up my easel at the top of Military Road, next to Hill 60.

I put the small canvas of the stack from Darcy Road against my easel as inspiration.
As a 300m exclusion zone around the area was to be set up on Thursday, I had spent most of the previous day wandering around Port Kembla looking for good vantage points to paint and to view the demolition. The dramatic perspective of the hill and road leading up to the stack made this spot the winner.

Starting a painting of the Port Kembla Copper stack
from Military Road on Wednesday morning 19th February 2014
"Port Kembla Copper stack from Military Road,
the last day before demolition"
oil on canvas 61 x 31cm
Available
The sullen clouds overhead were joined by the smoke from the still operational Port Kembla Steelworks in the middle distance. Their chimneys were humbled by the overpowering height and bulk of the iconic Copper Stack.
Rumours about the impending closure of the steelworks made this scene even more poignant.
I wasn't the only one to find this great view. 

As you can see by the camera on the tripod in the photo above, I had barely started to paint when tag teams of roaming journalists descended to interview the local residents.

Starting a painting of the Port Kembla Copper stack
from Military Road on Wednesday morning 19th February 2014
"Port Kembla Copper stack from Military Road,
the last day before demolition"
oil on canvas 61 x 31cm
Available

I received a fair share of the media attention as well.
"Painting an iconic landscape before a looming monolith is felled" by Justin Huntsdale 19 February, 2014 3:00PM ABC Illawarra

Painting of the Port Kembla Copper stack
from Military Road on Wednesday morning 19th February 2014
"Port Kembla Copper stack from Military Road,
the last day before demolition"
oil on canvas 61 x 31cm
Available

However, by noon it had started to cloud over and I was worried that the distractions would mean that I wouldn't be able to complete my canvas before the rain became too heavy to continue.

Painting of the Port Kembla Copper stack
from Military Road on Wednesday morning 19th February 2014
"Port Kembla Copper stack from Military Road,
the last day before demolition"
oil on canvas 61 x 31cm
Available

By 2pm I had to leave as I was drenched, however, I had managed to capture the last day of the Port Kembla Copper Stack.

Related posts

Stacking the stackpot

Another one bites the dust

Eaten by Robots

"Painting an iconic landscape before a looming monolith is felled"

by Justin Huntsdale
19 February, 2014 3:00PM ABC Illawarra

There's nothing...Painting the Jolly Frog Part 3

Tis the season to be jolly.... not.
Not if you happen to be a frog, anyway, after a nasty outbreak of "Spontaneous Pub Combustion".

 WJF5 'The 'Jolly Frog' (there's nothing...) 
2013 oil on canvas 25 x 31cm
Available

When I looked more closely at my painting (this canvas was painted in December 2013, just a month before the fire) I noticed the prophetic words "There's nothing" in the background to the left.
It is part of the "Holden" sign of the neighbouring car yard, and says in full "There's nothing quite like a Holden".

Detail of WJF5 'The 'Jolly Frog' (there's nothing...)
2013 oil on canvas 25 x 31cm

The entire sign was rather ironic, come to think of it.

"There's nothing like a Holden" ?
Oh, but there is - Ford, Ansett, Gowings,Toyota, possibly even SPC Ardmona and Qantas to join them.
I chose the phrase "the boiling frog" as appropriate to christen my first post about painting the "Jolly Frog".

The differences from one day to the next are apparently imperceptible, but it is harder and harder to go back.

I've just read the excellent historical notes on the self-guided Windsor Heritage Walk, that I discovered in the Macquarie Arms Hotel. 

Apparently this area on the bank of South Creek was the Green Hills Burial Ground. It was in use from the early 1800s until Governor Lachlan Macquarie proclaimed the new burial ground in 1811,now the cemetery of  St Matthews Anglican Church. It is thought that until the 1840s criminals continued to be buried on the bank of South Creek in unmarked graves.

No wonder I felt uneasy around the riverbank behind the Jolly Frog.

A ghost town in more ways than one.
They might well be spinning in them now.

To mix my metaphors, I hope the frog is a phoenix in disguise and will rise from its ashes.

Related Posts

Paintings of Pink pubs

The Boiling Frog

The Phantom Toll house

The Jolly Frog, historic Sydney pub, destroyed in blaze

(abc news)

The Phantom Toll House

Starting "Windsor Tollhouse" 2014

oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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By noon I had finished the first small oil study and started a larger canvas to reveal the Tollhouse in the context of the surrounding landscape.
The exterior of the Tollhouse had been lovingly restored in 1997.
I had heard that a local historical society used to open it for tours, but it looks as though it has not been opened for several years at least.

Starting "Windsor Tollhouse" 2014 
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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The 1974 version of Fitzroy Bridge is the 5th incarnation of the bridge over South Creek.

Painting "Windsor Tollhouse" 2014 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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In contrast to the current surroundings, this 1875 photo of the Tollhouse with the "Jolly Frog"  shows  the prominent place the Jolly Frog and Toll House once played as gate posts leading into Windsor.

Painting "Windsor Tollhouse" 2014
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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As you can see in this photo, the Tollhouse is invisible from the main road. Unfortunately despite its site as Windsor's heritage gateway it isn't able to function as a tourist drawcard.

The bridge definitely needs to be at this level or even higher, due to frequent  flooding, so there is no easy solution to the problem of the Tollhouse.

Painting "Windsor Tollhouse" 2014
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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 The land is close to the river, and even more prone to flooding than the other side of the road which is slightly more elevated.

The Tollhouse is now buried deep in a hole.

"Windsor Tollhouse" 2014
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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In the shadow of the concrete wall, this little heritage gem stands no chance of becoming the tourist drawcard that it so richly deserves to be.

"Windsor Tollhouse" 2014
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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 I managed to complete  this painting by 5.30 pm.

"Windsor Tollhouse" 2014
oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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What a contrast between the sensitivity of the texture of the convict cut sandstone blocks and the brutality of the concrete aggregate wall!
I think that my painting really expresses the feeling of claustrophobia given by the oppressive concrete wall looming over the Toll House.

The wall has a threatening, almost malevolent appearance, and the building seems to be in danger of being buried by it.

Related posts

• Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2
• The Boiling Frog
• Storm warning, Goat Island
• Pyrmont paintings past and present- My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum
• Another one bites the dust

Historic Sydney pub The Jolly Frog destroyed in blaze (abc.net.au)
 

See my pageof Windsor paintings

Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Another painting of the "Jolly Frog" before the fire.
I've just read the excellent historical notes on theself-guided Windsor Heritage Walks, that I found in the Macquarie Arms Hotel.
I painted this view from the site of the Windsor Barracks and Guardhouse opposite.
According to the guide "in 1818 a substantial brick barracks accommodating up to 60 soldiers was completed on this site by Richard Fitzgerald. The foundations of the guardhouse constructed in 1830 at the entrance to the barracks were unearthed by roadworks in 1976 and the site preserved. The guardhouse consisted of 3 small cells which were used for the confinement of subordinate soldiers. The site was surrounded by a high wall, remnants of which survive today. The barracks and guardhouse were demolished in about 1928 to make way for the construction of a police station and lockup."

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations

of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Whenever I painted the "Jolly Frog" I found myself thinking about Edward Hopper's paintings, while listening to the Buena Vista Social Club on my mp3 player.In Edward Hopper's paintings, encroaching shadows express the tension between nature and culture, and past and present.

Although roads are typically associated with the noise, speed, and rapid change of modern life, this scene is curiously still and silent.

I've finally tracked down the Edward Hopper painting that I feel it most resembles " Early Sunday Morning" 1930.
After crossing the Fitzroy bridge over South Creek, for a minute I thought I had arrived at a sleepy Cuban shanty town. The shabby facade of the "Jolly Frog" painted like a block of liquorice allsorts , a combination of sublime architecture and gorblimey colour evoked the streets of Old Havana.
I've always wondered about the inspiration behind the surprising and lurid colour schemes of moribund pubs.
For comparison, I have included 2 of my paintings of the ex-pub "The Pyrmont Arms".

"P248A The 'Pyrmont Arms' from the CSR 2
1991 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
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The pink paint job is startling enough on the close up bird's eye view study I painted from the roof of the CSR boilerhouse (now the 'Elizabeth' apartment of the Jackson's Landing LendLease development)

But just look at how it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all the dark decaying bond stores and warehouses!

P249 "Pyrmont panorama- from the CSR 2"
 1991 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm
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Same fabulously horrid "glow in the dark" shade of "Paddo pink", but a very different fate was in store for the ex- Pyrmont Arms Hotel. It is no longer a hotel, but has been reasonably sympathetically renovated and is now a combination of apartments above and a bottle-o below.

The real mystery is how the "Terminus Hotel" a block further south in Pyrmont has so far escaped. The Terminus has been derelict since the mid 1980s, and must surely be a candidate for the Guinness Book of Records for the longest existence as a derelict building without having suffered a mysterious fire. If you're interested in its strange history see my posts in this blog "To the Point" , "Looking over the overlooked" and "A tale of Two Pyrmont Hotels"

Update

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations
of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
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Past and present at the Jolly Frog, 26th January 2014

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations
of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
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 Past and present at the Jolly Frog, 26th January 2014

WJF5 'The 'Jolly Frog' (there's nothing...)
 2013 oil on canvas 25 x 31cm
Private Collection : Windsor
Enquiries

Related posts

See my page of Windsor paintings

See my page of Pyrmont paintings

"A tale of Two Pyrmont Hotels"

"Looking over the overlooked"

"To the Point"

The Boiling Frog

The Phantom Toll House

Historic Sydney pub The Jolly Frog destroyed in blaze (abc.net.au)

6 Year sentence for Jolly Frog Arsonist  Hawkesbury Gazette 26/10/16