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

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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.
Showing posts with label Glebe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glebe. Show all posts

Friday 3 July 2020

Black cat of Union Square

Are black cats lucky?
People seem to be equally divided into those who think its lucky to have a black cat cross their path, and those who think it's very unlucky.
I feel this cat was a lucky omen for this particular nook of Pyrmont.
Union Square, in contrast to many other parts of Pyrmont, had kept much of its original character. Unlike many other inner city neighbourhoods, this one has so far dodged the relentless rollout of Westconnex and other highways and tollways that has blitzed several other nearby suburbs on the fringe of the city.
In 2009, the NSW Government's proposal for a Metro entrance in the charming historical precinct of Union Square had threatened to obliterate one of the last remaining vestiges of Pyrmont's heritage. But times and governments change, and the whole project was cancelled in 2010. The vaguely Parisian atmosphere of Union Square remains a charming contrast to the bloated pomposity of the Star Casino only a block away. 
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P277 Union Square Terraces + Paternoster Row
2011 oil on canvas  31 x 103cm

One of the many joys of plein air painting is that the time that I have to spend looking at my subject reveals tiny details lost to a more casual observer.
On the corner of Union st and Paternoster Row there is a faded and clumsily drawn painting of an almost headless black cat, which goes mostly unnoticed by the passing cyclists. It fascinates me that this cryptic little fragment has somehow escaped being scraped off or obliterated with a schmick new paint job.
It was painted by an eccentric street artist Bruno Dutot some time between about 1989 and 1991 before the arrival of a more strident fashion in graffiti from New York a few years later.
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P277 Detail of cat painted on wall-
Union Square Terraces + Paternoster Row
2011  oil on canvas  31 x 103cm
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This fragment of a cat once had a very soigne companion, painted in a style reminiscent of Erte, but in an endearingly amateur fashion. She was a slender, highly stylized and stylish woman called rather weirdly, "Oucha", and versions of this image cropped up all over the inner city in her heyday of the late 1980s - 1990s.
I remember passing her strangely elongated image on the corner of Union Square and Paternoster Row, back in the days when Union Square had two-way traffic and was a shortcut to the Fishmarkets and Glebe.
Plein air oil painting of panorama of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P274 Union Square Terraces 4 -
a little piece of Paris in Pyrmont
 2010 oil on canvas  31 x 61cm
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The painting above shows Union Square from Paternoster Row down to Pyrmont Street. It was painted in 2010, just before the cancellation of the Metro plans had been made public.
Back then, the chimneys of the Pyrmont Power Station loomed over the terraces of Union Square instead of the equally monolithic Casino. The 'Harlequin Inn' which can be seen to the right of this canvas, on the corner of Union Square and Harris Street, was then the more down at heel 'Duke of Wellington' and boasted a huge and incongruous cartwheel as a wall feature. The two way road has been transformed into a one way lane with a large pedestrian area circling the "Angel of Union Square", with seating and odd sandstone 'mushrooms' (actually part of the balustrade salvaged long ago from the now pedestrianized Pyrmont Bridge) But, essentially, very little has changed in Union Square since the 1980s.
Plein air oil painting of Pyrmont Post Office and the Pyrmont War Memorial Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P242 Pyrmont Post Office
1993 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm
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The painting above was painted in the early 1990s from the other end of Union Square, and shows the intersection of Union Square and Miller Street as a two-way street before it became a plaza. The "Angel of Union Square" is in the centre and behind her is the Commonwealth Bank painted a particularly horrid shade of "Paddington Pink". On the extreme right is a corner of the "Duke of Wellington" Hotel, and on the right is the golden sandstone archway of the Walter Liberty Vernon designed Pyrmont Post Office.
The last example of "Oucha" that I know of, can still be seen on a corner of Edgecliff road on the left hand side travelling from the city towards Edgecliff. She is occasionally repainted, possibly even by the original artist, and sometimes decorated with glitter.
She and her cat are relics of a less worldly age.
The wall above the cat has an obvious tidemark where "Oucha" has been painted over with more enthusiasm than skill and it remains distinctly two-toned.
Plein air oil painting of Pyrmont war Memorial "Angel Of Union Square"of Union Square Pyrmont by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P276 Angel of Union Square
2010 oil on wood 23 x 12cm
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The lovely First World War monument known locally as the "Angel of Union Square" seems to have had a protective effect over her square, acting as a shield against marauding developers.
But I like to think of the little faded and forgotten black cat as her mascot.

See more paintings of Union Square at the Pyrmont page in my blog

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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

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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

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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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Saturday 22 September 2012

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet - Part 4 'Blowing in the wind'

I have been commissioned to paint a monumental canvas of all the vessels of the Sydney Heritage Fleet from the foreshore of Blackwattle Bay at the end of Glebe Point road.
There are a few obvious challenges to overcome.
One of the challenges is that from this distance it is difficult to separate one vessel from another - they seem to merge into each other.
After my first session of painting this, I made several visits to the Rozelle shipyard and to the Noakes shipyard at Waverton to paint smaller canvases of some of the vessels such as the 'Lady Hopetoun', the 'John Oxley', the 'Kanangra' and the 'Boomerang'. Even though these were from different angles to the way they are from this viewpoint, I now have a much better understanding of what I have to deal with.
The sheer complexity of the subject could swamp the viewer in a mass of inchoate detail, so I have to choose carefully which areas to highlight and which to shadow to create enough rhythm to tie the composition together.

Plein air  Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay' painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'
2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm
A much bigger problem is very size of the canvas to be painted 'en plein air' . This canvas is 122 x 178cm.
The concept is for the ships to dominate the space and immerse the onlooker in the unique world of the Rozelle shipyard.
I have painted works on this scale 'en plein air' before and know all too well how it can turn into a wrestling match with the artist pitted against the elements.


Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'
2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm
Available

My painting was really starting to come together, but by noon the light had shifted so that I was looking into the glare of the afternoon sun.
And the wind was steadily rising.
The scene in this photograph looks deceptively calm, with Blackwattle Bay looking as still as a mirror, but less than half an hour later, I was chasing my brushes all over the park.
I knew that I should really stop painting, but the temptation for just one more brushstroke was too much.

Plein air  Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay' painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'
2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm

A sudden gust of wind and it was all over.
My canvas stretcher had snapped clean in half!
I had used cable ties to secure it to my easel, but the wood itself wasn't strong enough to withstand the weather conditions.
Fortunately, some people who had been watching me paint while they walked their dogs, helped me drag the flapping canvas and the rest of my belongings to my car.
If they hadn't, I would have been in some danger of going hang-gliding into Blackwattle Bay.

Plein air  Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay' painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
The other side of the canvas.
Painting 'The Sydney Heritage Fleet from Blackwattle Bay'
2012 oil on canvas 122 x 178cm
 
Unfortunately this is 122 x 178cm which is not a standard size for a canvas.The standard stretcher size is 122 x 183cm.
I will have to unpick the staples and restretch it. By a miracle, the canvas itself wasn't damaged, just the wood.
But I will have to restretch this on another stretcher of the same type which is made of lightweight wood, probably balsa. This will withstand moderate wind up to about 25-30 km/h but a random gust of 35-40 km/h might be too much.
At the moment the wind gusts at Blackwattle Bay are so strong that I will need to use an extra heavy duty stretcher frame composed of stronger wood, and twice the depth of this one. And these types of stretchers are not available for a 122 x 178cm size canvas.
I will finish this painting one day, when there are a few calm days together. But I really need to get this done by the end of October, so rather than risk another lightweight canvas suffering the same fate I might as well start a fresh canvas.

Update
At times I never thought I'd live to see the day, but at last I have finally finished my giant canvas!
And now with 9 other women members of ASMA, the Australian Society of Marine Artists I will be holding an exhibition of my paintings of the Sydney Heritage Fleet.
In 2008 the Sydney Heritage Fleet in conjunction with the Australian Society of Marine Artists inaugurated an Artist in Residence programme, with the commission from sale of paintings going towards funding the Fleet's maintenance.
Our group of 10 artists will hold an exhibition of our completed paintings on the 'tween decks of the tall ship 'James Craig', which is the jewel in the crown of the Sydney Heritage Fleet, from 27th April 2013 - 3rd May 2013.
This must be the world's coolest gallery!
As well as this enormous canvas, I will exhibit 16 other paintings. Some of these were painted at the Rozelle headquarters, some from the Noakes slipways, others from the Australian National Maritime Museum and others from vantage points around Sydney Harbour.
The official opening will be 2pm on Saturday 27th April by Tanya Plibersek MP.
Everyone is welcome!

Related posts

Artist in Residence at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Part 1
Slipping away
'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
"Lashed to the Mast" - Plein Air painting as extreme sport
Jane Bennett paints the 'Lady Hopetoun' (asma-artistinresidence.blogspot.com)
Exhibition SALT IN THE AIR 27 April - 3rd May 2013 (asma-artistinresidence.blogspot.com)