Recently Sold Paintings from the Sydney Open : The Hungry Mile and Barangaroo

Not all of these paintings were displayed at the '30, The Bond' during the Sydney Open, but were sold to people who saw my exhibitions and later made enquiries to my gallery. I was kept quite busy the next week - paintings were flying around like frisbees!
A large canvas exhibited at 'Workplace6' during the Sydney Open also has just been sold. Not bad for a one - day show with no publicity or invitations!
See my other blog: 'Industrial Revelation'
Recently Sold Paintings : Pyrmont paintings at Workplace6 

'L3 Crane and shed 4' oil on canvas 31 x 23cm SOLD

As well as the usual plein air painting problems of avoiding the wind and sun, I had to try not to be mown down by forklifts. After a while I had worked out safe observation points all over the wharf, depending on the type of ship/cargo, time of day and weather conditions. This was painted between Shed 4 and 5, looking north towards the west end of Goat Island. There was no ship in and no cargo inside Shed 4, or I would never have been allowed to paint there. Usually this area was full of cars, boats and containers; and I would have had to paint against the wall of the shed or inside the yellow workcage. One of the workcages is against the left hand side of the shed.

'The 'Coral Chief' from shed3' 2006 oil on canvas 31 x 25cm SOLD

I painted this from beside the west roll-a door of shed 3, , looking directly south towards the P&O offices that were in shed 4, in the centre of this painting. The 2 cranes are (from left to right) “L1” and “L3”. The Chief ships usually only came in on the weekend, and normally docked at shed 3. This particular vantage point was excellent on a hot summer morning with a brisk nor-easter, provided that there was no ship berthed at No. 3 and that there were no steel coils or timber stored inside the shed at the time. The shed would shelter me from the worst of the wind and the sun wouldn’t be in my eyes.

The Tug 'Karoo' from Darling Harbour 2006 oil painting on canvas 28 x 36 cm
SOLD

The ‘Karoo’is one of the smaller tugs on Sydney Harbour, (but only in comparison with tugs like the majestic ‘Woona'). Up close, of course, the ‘Karoo’ isn’t really small! It is one of the ‘Wallace’ stable (a division of ‘Adsteam Marine’ based in Port Kembla) All of the names of the Wallace tugs start with the letter ‘K’, and are derived  from Aboriginal names for localities in the Illawarra area. I believe that 'Karoo' refers to a lake around the Illawarra region.

The ‘Karoo’ was only to be seen comparatively rarely and for brief moments from East Darling Harbour, usually while shepherding one of the blue ‘NYK’ line Ro-ros to and from the wharves at Glebe Island, as I have depicted it here in this canvas.

 The 'Koranui  ' 2007 oil on canvas 25x31cm SOLD

This is the tug which towed the barges with the last of the cranes. down to Port Kembla.

The ‘Karoo’ and the ‘Woona’ were the two tugs used in the last major port operation of Patrick (OK- technically speaking it had by now become ‘Asciano’ of Toll Holdings) ,which was towing the ‘Seatow’ barge with the last of the wharf cranes on it, escorted by the tug ‘Koranui’ to Port Kembla, when East Darling Harbour Wharves closed.

'The 'Woona'  2007 oil painting on canvas 20 x 25cm

SOLD

The 'Woona' with the Talabot 2009 oil on canvas 20x25cm

SOLD 

My tug paintings were immensely popular with galleries and collectors, and I'm often asked for a ‘set’ of the ‘Wilga’, ‘Wonga’, ‘Woona’, or for 3 or 4 different angles of the same tug.

'The tug 'Wonga' with 'Victorian Reliance'' 20x25cm SOLD

  

The most familiar tug, during my period as ‘Artist in Residence’ on the wharves of East Darling Harbour, was the ‘Woona’, which seemed to be used for almost every one of the gigantic bright red Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ro-ros. The other tugs were harder to spot and harder to paint as I saw them less often and for shorter periods of time. The next most commonly spotted tugs were the ‘Wilga’ and ‘Wonga’, followed by the ‘Wolli’ and the ‘Watagan’. 

Enquiries about these and other paintings:

Frances Keevil Gallery