White Ship with Black Hawks-The 'Pacific Jewel' at Barangaroo

'Pacific Jewel at Wharf 5, Barangaroo, with Black Hawk helicopters' 
2010 oil painting on canvas 31 x 103cm

$3,500

Catalogue number 34
Exhibited "May close without warning..." Frances Keevil Gallery

Enquiries about this and similar paintings

Buzzing Around

A training exercise (hopefully). This happened several times during September - November 2010. Must have scared the passengers out of their wits! The huge Black Hawk helicopters reminded me of giant blowflies buzzing around a flaked out sunbather.

Strangely enough, not long afterwards they had a real problem. Something mechanical went wrong with the Pacific Jewel. I don't know whether it was an engine problem or a propeller problem, but the ship had to cool its heels for quite a while, first at Barangaroo, then for over a week at Glebe Island and finally at Captain Cook dry dock over at Garden Island. I have painted an example of each site, and will post them at my other blog Industrial Revelation  soon.

This is painted from just inside the LendLease enclosure at the north-western end. I was chased away from the demolition activity down at the southern end and was grateful for all the aviation activity to add a different focus to the painting.

The diagonals of the white tents contrast with the darker, more classically inspired dockyard bond stores and historic hotels of Millers Point and Hickson Road to the right of the canvas. 

A light pole neatly bisects the canvas into new wharf to the left and old (or comparatively old) buildings to the right. LendLease had just finished removing all the powerpoles from their section of the wharf, leaving just a few of the yellow bollards sticking out, uselessly. In the centre distance of this painting, you can see some of these relics standing like a few jagged broken teeth in the toothless jaw of an old wharfie.

I must say that I don't care much for the Palisade Hotel's newly renovated roof garden. The shade sails might be practical but they spoil the charm of the stepped roof line, giving it a blocky, squared off look. However this will probably be the least of Millers point's architectural problems given all the changes in store for this previously sleepy and overlooked area.

Art exhibition : Recent Paintings by Jane Bennett

From Barangaroo to Double Bay :

My paintings for sale -

on Display at the Frances Keevil Gallery until 8th October 2010

"I saw the number '8' in red... "2010  
oil painting on canvas  51 x 76cm
$4,200  

See my post : I saw the number '8' in red...

"Out of time " oil painting on canvas 31 x 31 cm
$990

See my post : Barangaroo terminal -'Out of time' 

 

"Keep Area clear" 

(Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8)  

2010  oil painting on canvas 51 x 76cm

$4,200

Painted from a similar viewpoint as "May close without warning..."

"MAY CLOSE WITHOUT WARNING (Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8)"
oil painting on canvas 51 x 76cm
$4,200 

See my post : May close without warning

"Night, 'Pacific Jewel'  from the bridge of the Maersk Gateshead" 2010 
oil painting on canvas 61 x 91 cm
$6,000

See my post : 'Maersk Gateshead' last container ship

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time 
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo" 2010 
oil painting on canvas 
36 x 46 cm
$1,800

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time 
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo"

Diptych Left hand canvas 2010 
oil painting on canvas 25 x 51 cm each 
Total image size 25 x 102cm

Each canvas : $1,400  Diptych : $2,800 

"The Pacific Jewel arrives for the first time 
at the new temporary facilities at Barangaroo"

Diptych: Right hand canvas 2010 oil painting on canvas 25 x 51 cm each 
Total image size 25 x 102cm

Each canvas : $1,400  Diptych : $2,800

"The 'Pacific Jewel ' at the new temporary facility at Darling Harbour"

Diptych- 2010 oil painting on canvas 

25 x 51 cm each 

Total image size 25 x 102cm

Each canvas : $1,400  Diptych : $2,800

See my post :  Barangaroo paintings of 'Pacific Jewel'


 All enquiries about paintings : Frances Keevil Gallery
 Email : info@franceskeevilart.com.au

  

Eight (ate)

Barangaroo : Demolition of Wharf 8

"Eight (ate)" 2010 unfinsihed oil painting on canvas 31 x 25 cm

The Wharf building is now demolished. All that remains is a pile of twisted metal, and the giant red numeral.
The forked sign painted at the foot of the 8 is actually really there, but to me it symbolizes the whole dilemma of Barangaroo, of Sydney and possibly of Australia itself. Caught between two possible directions (remember the election anybody?) equally poised between looking back and moving forward. Progress and change are needed, but in which direction?
Update on eight (ate)

'Eight (ate)' 2010  oil painting on canvas 31 x 25 cm

The finished painting.

The first cut is the deepest

Barangaroo :  Demolition starts of former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour Wharf 8

'The '800' demolishing the Gantries' 2010 oil painting on canvas 36 x 46 cm

The Gantries

'The Gantries' Unfinished oil painting on canvas 36 x 46cm

Breakfast in the ruins

Gantry

'Gantry (keep)' Almost finished oil painting on canvas 46 x 36 cm

I had wondered if the gantries were to be kept intact & possibly recycled for use at the new cruise ship terminal soon to be built at White Bay.
They are instead about to be demolished by the very same man who built the orange gantry only 8 years ago.
The MUA has just linked an article about my paintings of the Hungry Mile & Barangaroo on their website to my other blog, "Industrial Revelation".

Barangaroo : Terminal - Facade

A last look at Wharf 8, the former Cruise Ship Terminal

'Wharf 8- facade with red door' 2010 Unfinished oil on canvas 31 x 61 cm.

'The Red Door closes' unfinished oil painting on canvas 25 x 51 cm

Barangaroo : Terminal -The Artist's Studio

My Studio at Barangaroo : Works in progress


Painting inside the the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8 painted in July-August 2010. 

"Red Square"

A race against time

I make the big move out of the terminal

"Grabber,Muncher, Ripper,"

"Grabber, ripper,muncher" 2010 oil painting on canvas 31 x 31cm

Yes, they actually are the proper names of the attachments to the excavators! I'm not making them up. Truly.

The "Grabber" is in the centre, the "Ripper" is the wicked looking blade on the right, while the "Muncher" is the monster with the fluoro pink "eye" & the toothy jaws in front of the red door to the left. The workmen promised me that there is also a "Pulverizer" that will arrive later. This I have to see!

A good day at the office

The very last day that I was able to leave my easels and canvases inside the terminal. I've now moved my stuff into a room in the loading dock of the old Sydney Ports Corporation Maintenance building that has been recently used to display the designs for Barangaroo. Not for long, apparently - Bovis LendLease has already moved the entrance twice and I've noticed construction of new site offices starting in the north-west corner. This building will obviously be the next to go after the DH8 terminal. Exactly when is anyone's guess.

Barangaroo : Terminal- 'Out of Time'

Inside the former cruise ship terminal at Wharf 8, Barangaroo

The completed painting "Out of time " unfinished oil painting on canvas 31 x 31 cm

A poignant little genre painting. Stopped clocks; a security sign; an abandoned storeroom. Industrial memento mori. I found a plaque commemorating the opening of this building - 1999. Not all that long ago, but already it seems like an eon has passed.
Sydney Ports Corporation has just arrived to take possession of this sign. I found it's inscription hilarious - it was about how passengers with cardiac pacemakers were not to go through the X ray machines, but had to be bodily searched by the security guards! if they didn't have heart problems to start with they would when they finished; all the excitement might prove too much!

Barangaroo: I saw the number '8' in red...

Barangaroo : Terminal -Arrivals Hall

This is an unfinished oil painting on canvas of the interior of the deserted former cruise ship terminal at Darling Harbour Wharf 8, Barangaroo.

My first day of painting this canvas:

'I saw the number '8' in red... '  oil painting on canvas 56 x 76cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com 

The title is my homage to the 1928 Charles Demuth painting "I saw the number 5 in gold..", an icon of American Modernism. Like Demuth, I never let go of reality.

The 2nd day of this painting :

'I saw the number '8' in red... '  oil painting on canvas 56 x 76cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com 

The 2nd day of this painting- nearly finished, but needs glazing to emphasize the reflections & the dramatic shafts of light from the doorways.

The completed painting:'I saw the number '8' in red... '  oil painting on canvas 56 x 76cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com 

Starting my 2nd painting of the interior of the Arrivals Hall:
Setting out a rough idea of the composition:

"I saw the number '8' in red" 2010 unfinished oil painting on canvas  61 x 183cm

Starting work on a large panoramic interior of the Arrivals Hall. This is a Saturday, and apart from the bored security guards on the gate I have the whole place more or less to myself so it is eerily silent.

For a change I have managed to get here early. I've been battling a killer bout of flu for over a month and I've had to push myself to keep working. My throat has been so sore that I can only eat jelly and chicken soup for the last week. I've taken in a thermos of icecubes to numb my throat and they seem to help. Whinge, whinge. This is totally self inflicted- I've been painting outdoors in the middle of winter on a freezing cold wharf in a howling gale & to misquote Alice in Wonderland it is bound to disagree with you sooner or later. However I wouldn't swap what I do for anything; it keeps me endlessly fascinated. I only wish that I wouldn't get ill just at this crucial point in the history of Sydney Harbour - this is the last wharf on the historic Hungry Mile, which has been the fountainhead of Australia's maritime industry since settlement over 200 years ago, and it will be demolished in less than a fortnight! No other artist in Australia seems to have an MSIC or a greencard; so I am the only person permitted to paint any of this.

Half way through my 1st day of painting :

"I saw the number '8' in red" 2010 unfinished oil painting on canvas  61 x 183cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com  

At the end of the first day:

"I saw the number '8' in red" 2010 unfinished oil painting on canvas  61 x 183cm
SOLD
Enquiries about similar paintings :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com  

I have used 'terminal' as part of the title of paintings in this series as a play on words. The following nuances of meaning I found particularly apt :

1.situated at or forming the end or extremity of something...

2. occuring at or forming the end of a series, succession, or the like; closing; concluding

7.pertaining to or placed at a boundary, as a landmark.

8. occuring at or causing the end of life: a terminal disease.

9.(Informal) utterly beyond hope, rescue or saving...

10. a terminal part of a structure; end or extremity.

13. a station on the line of a public carrier,as in a city centre ... where passengers embark or disembark...

(Courtesy of Dictionary.com)

Take your pick!


Related Posts

• Barangaroo : 'Maersk Gateshead' -The Last Container Ship (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)
• Barangaroo : Terminal- 'Out of Time' (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)
• Terminal, End or Extremity (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• Cruising (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• My Studio at Barangaroo (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)

Barangaroo : Red Square

Barangaroo: Painting inside the former cruise ship terminal

"Red Square" unfinished oil painting on canvas 41 x 91cm

A work in progress, still on the easel.

 'Red Square' oil painting on canvas 41 x 91cm

This canvas is still a little unfinished, but you can get the general idea of what I'm attempting to do here. It's an interior versus exterior painting, playing with light, transparency and reflections. Unlike the other doors in the loading dock, which are solid slabs of brilliant scarlet, these are translucent fluted sheets that both reveal and conceal the view. 

The "Red square" to the left was the bright scarlet entrance to the passenger walkways allowing access to the cruise ship.
In 20th century art history a famous quote about early abstract art was "The red square is haunting painting", about an oil painting by Kasimir Malevich, one of the originators of the Russian Suprematism movement in abstract painting. The red square has certainly haunted this building! It reminds me how quickly the 'new' and 'modern' passes into history. It is ironic how "Modernism" is now a historic term referring to the art of 50-80 years ago, and the architect of this former wharf has either deliberately or unknowingly raided its vocabulary!

In the background are the two drill rigs of the geophysics team, Coffey and Macquarie Drilling.

For an update on what happened to this canvas, see my post at this blog:'Brilliantly renovated and cut in half'

Barangaroo : May close without warning

Barangaroo : Paintings of the former cruise ship terminal at Wharf 8 

Unfinished oil paintings on canvas, all are 61 x 91 cm
Subject : the interior of the loading dock of the deserted former cruise ship terminal at Darling Harbour Wharf 8.

Poignant reminders of the site's previous function create ironic, even surrealist undertones. This building will be demolished in late August 2010. It had only been opened in July 1999, for the expected influx of cruise ships for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. I remember it being built - in fact I remember its predecessor being built to replace another wharf!

This painting shows the entrance to the loading dock, normally off limits to the public. The door is open to the view north towards the Sydney Harbour Control Tower on the right and the new temporary cruise ship facilities in the marquee to the left.

"Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8" unfinished oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm

After 2nd day of painting- only needs finishing touches on masonry and shadows.

I'll have to take this home to do the final flourishes as Cardinal has just parked 3 large excavators right in front of me just as I was about to complete this! I musn't get dust on it when I'm putting on layers of glazes or I'll spend the next fortnight plucking the bits of gravel, pigeon feathers etc off the surface with a pair of tweezers!
Painted from a similar viewpoint as "May close without warning..."

The completed painting: "Inside the loading dock of the former Cruise ship Terminal at Darling Harbour 8" oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm

"MAY CLOSE WITHOUT WARNING " unfinished oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm

Day 1 of this painting

The completed painting "MAY CLOSE WITHOUT WARNING "
oil painting on canvas 61 x 91cm

I found the office chair sitting in the middle of the deserted loading dock.

The title "May close without warning" refers to the warnings found on the portal of the fire doors framing the central image.

While I was painting, the electricity and the water was yet to be turned off, and every half hour or so the automatic fire door would grumble a bit and roll forward and back several inches. It was eerie as the building was mostly empty and all the workmen were outside- talk about the 'Ghost in the machine'!
Through the doorway is the Sydney Harbour Control Tower and the marquee used for the temporary cruise ship facilities by Sydney Ports Corporation. The title of this painting could double as my motto! "May close without warning" says it all.
I never need to make jokes - the truth is quite adequately hilarious.

Barangaroo : 'Maersk Gateshead' -The Last Container Ship

Painting the 'Maersk Gateshead'  from the wharf at Barangaroo
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Barangaroo : Painting the Last Container Ship June 2010

This was the last container ship ever to enter Sydney Harbour. I was permitted to paint this ship, not only from the wharf, but from the bridge of the ship, courtesy of the Captain, Mark Carter.

On my easel is the completed oil painting of the 'Maersk Gateshead' which I sold to the Captain.

Enquiries about similar paintings

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Painting the 'Maersk Gateshead'  from the wharf at Barangaroo

Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

 DH255 'Early morning, the Maersk Gateshead at Barangaroo'
2010 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

$2,000
Enquiries about this painting

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

DH257 'The Maersk Gateshead, preparing to depart Barangaroo'
 2010 oil on canvas 40 x 120cm

$5,000
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Painting the 'Maersk Gateshead'  from the bridge of the ship at Barangaroo. 
An unfinished oil painting of the panorama stretching from Pyrmont and White Bay to Balmain 25 x 152cm

Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Painting the 'Maersk Gateshead'  from the bridge of the ship at  Barangaroo. A central view of the prow of the ship featuring its rows of containers. The Sydney CBD and the heritage terrace houses of  Miller's Point are in the background.
Unfinished Oil painting on canvas 38 x 76cm

Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

I spent 4 days painting from different vantage points on the ship, knowing that I was witness to the end of an era.

 DH256 'The 'Pacific Jewel at wharf 7 from the bridge of the Maersk Gateshead'
2010 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm

$3,300
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

An unplanned visit

The 'Maersk Gateshead' only made her unplanned visit to Sydney Harbour because her engines became disabled. Rather than return to Port Botany or sail further into Sydney Harbour to dock at Glebe Island, as originally planned, the Captain decided to make use of the recently vacated wharf at Barangaroo.
The 'Maersk Gateshead' was not originally intended to enter Sydney Harbour at all. It had been near Botany, when it was discovered that the engines were disabled, and after some discussion, it was decided at first to send it to Glebe Island. I was painting the ex-Hmas Adelaide and the OES Barge which were both then docked at Glebe. On the 7th June the OES Barge was waiting for the weather conditions to permit it to go to Botany, where it was to start the trials for laying cables. There was quite a big swell at Botany, which is a wide windy shallow bay at the best of times. Suddenly the OES people were told to move the barge from Glebe to neighbouring White Bay, to accomodate the disabled ship. But the expected ship did not arrive at Glebe - the captain had decided to instead move his ship the 'Maersk Gateshead' to the vacant lot at the former DH5.

The ship was not unloaded at the wharf, but waited for repairs and finally left at 3pm Monday 14th June. I understood the historical significance and made sure that I took advantage of the situation. As well as painting from the dockside, after a bit of negotiation I was permitted to paint from the bridge of the ship itself. 

"Night, 'Pacific Jewel'  from the bridge of the Maersk Gateshead" 2010 
oil painting on canvas 61 x 91 cm
 $6,600 
Enquiries about this painting
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

From the bridge of the "Maersk Gateshead"at night. The "Pacific Jewel" Cruise ship is turning in the background, ready to depart Sydney Harbour.This was a historic moment - the last time that a cruise ship would dock at the old cruise ship terminal at Darling Harbour Wharf 8.

It is highly unlikely that any other container ship will ever be allowed to dock at Barangaroo again. If the recent article by Paul Keating in the Sydney Morning Herald is any indication, the cruise ships will be evicted to White Bay as soon as possible.

Related articles

View article about the 'Maersk Gateshead's' stay at Barangaroo

Maersk Alabama entered pirate infested waters

Maersk vessel attacked by pirates 

• ---

• Painting the International Fleet Review at Barangaroo
• Painting the International Fleet Review at Barangaroo Part 2
• Painting the Icebreaker "Polar Star"
• 'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'

• Barangaroo : A big white ship at a big white tent (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)
• Art exhibition : Recent Paintings by Jane Bennett (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)