Barangaroo: the Sydney Harbour Control Tower
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| Behind the fence- Beware of the artist! |
The setting sun bathes the sandstone escarpment and Sydney Harbour Control Tower in a warm golden glow.
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| Art versus life |
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My canvas is sitting on top of my trolley luggage, which contains my essential equipment. My paints, my brushes, my palette, my easel, my toilet paper and my lunch. It's a long walk back and the French box easel weighs over 10 kilos with the paint inside. All French box easels have annoying design flaws. With this one the easel legs have an alarming tendency to detach and whack me on the back of shins whenever I least expect it. Although I can always count on them doing so when I'm climbing scaffolding or trying to pack up quickly to get out of the rain. Shoving it inside the trolley luggage was the best compromise I could come up with.
This is the unfinished painting sitting on top of my trolley luggage after a hard day's painting:
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"Barangaroo Headland :
Sydney Harbour Control Tower, the escarpment and the Sydney Harbour Bridge "
2010 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61 cm
$2,000
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On the far left is a Federation era heritage sewage pumping station. Slightly behind this is the handsome sandstone Moore's Wharf building and the roof of a Walsh Bay Wharf pier. The charming terraces of Merriman St in Miller's PointSydney Harbour Control Tower. perch on the sandstone escarpment, which is neatly bisected by the mushroom head of the Sydney Harbour Control Tower.
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Painting the Harbour Control Tower at Barangaroo
"Barangaroo Headland :Sydney Harbour Control Tower and the escarpment" 2010
oil painting on canvas 61 x 61 cm
$4,200
Enquiries about this painting :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com |
While I was painting this, the radio station
Nova was holding some kind of promotional event, on the knuckle of the northern end of Barangaroo. It was a bit distracting and I felt a bit nervous leaving all of my things lying around at the mercy of the crowd whenever I had to have a loo break. But they had set up a pop-up coffee bar in the middle of the wharf, so I'm everlastingly grateful to them as I love my coffee and never usually get a chance to drink any while I'm painting - it tends to go sour in a thermos and milk turns to yoghurt in the sun.
This is a close up of the painting I started that morning:
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"Barangaroo Headland :Sydney Harbour Control Tower and the escarpment" 2010
oil painting on canvas 61 x 61 cm
$4,200
Enquiries about this painting :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
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The concrete mushroom head of the Sydney Harbour Control Tower looms above me as I sit in its shadow.
The Harbour Control Tower has been a Sydney Harbour icon since it was built in 1972. It is sometimes known as the 'Pill' - because it controls the berths (bad wharfie joke) It boasts a 'loo with a view'- the toilet in the amenities section of the upper storey has a 270 degree view stretching from the Rocks in the east to Balmain in the west.
The Harbour Control Tower will still be used by Sydney Ports Corporation until their room in their spiffy new purple and silver headquarters at Port Botany has been fitted out. As far as I know this will happen in April 2011.
I don't know whether there will be a role for the Harbour Control Tower in the new plans for Barangaroo. It has a fabulous 360 degree view of Sydney Harbour - there is really nowhere else to be in Sydney on New Year's Eve to see the fireworks. When they are set off from the rooftops of the CBD buildings you are almost directly above them. I have spent 4 out of the past 6 New Year's Eve celebrations painting the fireworks and the tall ship's pageant from the eye in the sky.
I still have one of my easels stored on the amenities floor. I'd better go up there and paint soon or they will throw it away.
I hope that it isn't pulled down. I'd miss it.
See more of my paintings at my blog
"Industrial Revelation"
