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
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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
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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
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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"