Industrial Cathedral

Industrial Cathedral
"Industrial Cathedral" charcoal on paper 131 x 131 cm Jane Bennett. Finalist in 1998 Dobell Drawing Prize Art Gallery of NSW Finalist 1998 Blake Prize Winner 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize

About Me

My photo
Sydney, NSW, Australia
I'm an Industrial Heritage Artist who paints "en plein air".If it's damaged, derelict, doomed and about to disappear, I'll be there to paint it.

Monday 15 June 2015

Open House

A not very architecturally distinguished housing commission in the hinterland of Glebe/Ultimo was being demolished in 2011. 
I jumped the fence and painted some small plein air canvases while it was being demolished.
plein air oil painting of housing commission apartments in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo by artist Jane Bennett
 "Half demolished apartment block
in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo"
2011 oil on canvas 15 x 15cm

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The 'Mirragang' at first sight looks quite presentable, until the lack of glass in the windows hints at something not quite right....
plein air oil painting of housing commission apartments in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo by artist Jane Bennett
'Open Plan'  -half demolished apartment block 
in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo"
2011 oil on canvas 13 x 18cm

Enquiries

 
The shell of the 'Mirragang' apartments on the left, and the 'Mirrabooka' on the right, frame the handsome dark brick building in the centre.
This former wool bond store, the Farmers and Graziers No 2 Store, was the last of the great bond stores, and replaced a swath of houses in 1936. The low-lying swampy area of Glebe and Ultimo has always been known for cheap and often nasty housing.
 From the 1850s onwards, a jumble of workshops, slaughter yards, boiling-down works and other scrappy industries sprang up around the noxious waters of Blackwattle Creek. Cramped cottages without water or sewerage, were erected by landlords for the working poor. People lived cheek by jowl with domestic animals. Refuse and offal from the slaughter yards often remained to rot on the mudflats. The abattoirs provided the bones to be burnt in the Char Tower of the CSR Distillery, which were used to filter sugar. And all of the residue was pumped right back into the Blackwattle Creek.
However uninspired these redbrick tower blocks looked, they were a vast improvement on their predecessors.
Mind you, that wouldn't have been hard.
Almost anything would have been.
plein air oil painting of housing commission apartments in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo by artist Jane Bennett
 'Open House' -
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 20cm

Available

Enquiries
The patch of sky behind the half-demolished windows gives a feeling of a stage set.
These 15 public housing apartment blocks in Cowper Street, Glebe, were demolished by the state Labor government in 2011, resulting in the eviction of 130 tenants. Although new housing on the site was promised, to be funded by the proceeds of money raised by the sale of 99-year leases to Millers Point terraces, the land was left vacant for years as a development application was lodged and contested in court.
The O'Farrell cabinet approved construction plans for 153 public housing units, 95 affordable housing units and 247 private apartments on the site in 2013.
Now the Baird government has finally announced plans to rebuild this demolished public housing estate on Cowper Street as a mixed private, public and affordable housing community.

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Tuesday 9 June 2015

Vivid

I have an exhibition of paintings inspired by 'Vivid' now on display at the Four Seasons Hotel, 199 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney.
This hotel is almost 'Vivid Headquarters'.
It is only 100 metres from the best vantage points to view the spectacular lighting the sails of the Opera House, and the facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay painted by artist Jane Bennett
'Vivid - Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay (Rainbow lights)' 2015 oil on canvas 102 x 200cm
SOLD
Enquiries about other Sydney Harbour paintings
Brett Whiteley often painted the magnificent view from Lavender Bay. 
It looks even better at night, however I don't think that many other artists have painted nocturnes of Sydney Harbour.
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge and lighting the sails of the Opera House  painted by artist Jane Bennett
'Vivid - Lighting the Sails-Luna Park on the Opera House'
2015 oil on canvas 152 x 122cm
Enquiries
Of all the images projected onto the sails of the Opera House, my favourite would be Luna Park.
It revives memories of the cheeky imagery by Martin Sharp, Peter Kingston and other larrikin ratbag artists who revered and helped defend Luna Park.

Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival hanging in the Four Seasons Hotel The Rocks Sydney- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  & Lighting the sails of the Sydney Opera House painted by artist Jane Bennett
Painting inspired by Vivid festival hanging
in the Four Seasons Hotel in The Rocks Sydney -
From left to right :
'Vivid - Lighting the Sails-Luna Park on the Opera House'
2015 oil on canvas 152 x 122cm
'Fireship' oil on paper 136 x 112cm
'Fireship' oil on canvas 61 x 91cm
Oil Painting inspired by Vivid festival- Nocturne of Sydney Harbour Bridge  from Lavender Bay painted by artist Jane Bennett
















The angle of the lighting on the painting has cast a faint rainbow as a halo above the span of the Bridge.
See more at the Ultimate Art Gallery
Four Seasons Hotel Sydney
199 George St, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
P.O Box 1347, Crows Nest NSW 2065
Phone: +61 (4) 35 844 347
Email: info@ultimateart.com.au


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Thursday 28 May 2015

Palimpsest- Painting the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger Factory

A palimpsest is a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.
The word is also used for something worked upon for one purpose and later reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.
I've recently been painting both inside and outside the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory in Alexandria.
It has been abandoned for about 25 years, and has innumerable layers of graffiti ranging from the sublimely talented to the ridiculously inept.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory





















 
The walls of the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger Factory are a palimpsest - a fascinating mix of both creation and destruction.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory
29-04-15 Starting my first canvas of the Dunlop-Slazenger factory. I don't know what the image is of or what it's called, so I've christened it "Yellow Eye".

Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory















 

It's an insight into the way different generations alter the landscape of their ancestors.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory






















 The factory is full of ghosts.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory






















On the second day of painting this canvas, I changed the composition to include the bizarre cartoon characters on the upper walls.
There is a grotesque creature which is part baboon part wildebeast and part crocodile with wriggling worm-like hair, and two characters resembling demonic smurfs.
The glass has also been tagged, and the rays of the setting sun make it light up like the stained glass of Chartres cathedral.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory












 
 
The building is now being sand-blasted back to the original brick and will be redeveloped for apartments.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory












 
 
Such is progress, alas.
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory












 
 
My extremely fashionable painting outfit. Lady Gaga will be copying this soon!
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting "Yellow Eye" oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
in the abandoned
Dunlop-Slazenger factory












 
 
Painting in PPE (Personal protective equipment)
Plein air oil painting in the abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
DS3 'Greeblies' -
Abandoned Dunlop-Slazenger factory'
2015 oil on canvas 122 x 122cm
 






















 
 
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Illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows- Painting the Dunlop - Slazenger factory Part 2

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Banners, Millers Point

plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by artist Jane Bennett
 "Dalgety Terrace Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm 
Collection : Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
Enquiries about similar paintings 
The Harbour Control Tower looms ominously over the row of ramshackle terraces on the sandstone block wall of Dalgety Road.
Some of the houses sport protest banners :"Millers Point not 4 sale" "Our community is worth more than money"
Fortunately some of the banners were still there long enough for me to paint them, however, a few weeks afterwards the Housing NSW Millers Point Relocation Team had torn them down.
Housing NSW's Relocation Officers and their security and "cleansing" teams have been removing banners and photos of residents throughout Millers Point. The banners on the Garrison Church Rectory and on St Brigid's Church were removed in January 2015.  

plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by artist Jane Bennett
 "Dalgety Terrace Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm 
Collection : Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
Enquiries about similar paintings
Luckily I finished painting this canvas just before the roadwork started.
I was set up between 2 of the hideous new apartments built several years ago to replace a set of old Maritime Services Board warehouses.
plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by artist Jane Bennett
 "Dalgety Terrace Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm
Collection : Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
Enquiries about similar paintings
To add insult to injury,there is now a serious attempt to remove even the name "Millers Point" from the suburb- see Don't erase Millers Point Facebook Page
This canvas, which I exhibited in my solo exhibition "Under the Hammer" Frances Keevil Gallery 2014, was recently acquired for the collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.
My canvases are banners that can never be torn down.