The Gunnery and other Woolloomooloo drawings

Theses are some drawings I;ve been doing as I put together the big painting for Weave Community Centre. I'll add more as I scan them

 

The Gunnery and the Tilbury from Forbes St

I lived at the Gunnery from 1985-1991 when it was an artist community squat and the most exciting venue in town. It was the first place I had a real studio to work in, and there was the gallery and performance spaces like the Dome to play around in .

Then an art bureaucratic clique lead by Artspace got jealous, and played stalking horse for Transfield to get their hands on some waterfront property. They gutted the theatres and replaced them with offices and foyers

 

McElhone St 

 

Forbes St and the homeless shelter formed by the viaduct. This is a photo from a phone which I will hopefully replace with a (set of) scan

View from the Junkyard Gallery

The view from the from porch of my new home and studio and occasional exhibition space in Forest Lodge. Thanks to Andy Perceval for organising the space and putting so much work into realising it. We're still busy painting and fixing the kitchen, and clearing out some residual junk.

There'll be a housewarming and a bit of an informal show soon

Newtown Sunday

 

A view from the Artist's Seat(heehee) and display cylinder outside Newtown Neighbourhood Centre with the Medical Centre on left and the corner of Wilson St

Weaving - composing the Woolloomooloo Triptych

 

The basic form of this synthetic landscape is apparent now with the Gunnery centre stage. I'll put Brett Whiteley's matches and the figtree near them on the left panel and a few cockatoos, and a few motorways, and maybe I can squeeze in my other old squat at 14 Palmer St. I've lowered the horizon a bit since taking the shot

 

Some slightly blurry photos of the painting at the moment, with a lot of bright permanent rose, Woolloomooloo hemmed in by the cliff Victoria St runs along the top of. And a bit of the railway

Cliffs and cliff dwellings so far

The right hand panel

 

After a lot of distractions and studies and hmmimg and hahing I've finally put a bit of paint on the main canvas at Weave. a bit of the arches under Victoria St - not much to see yetperhaps a bit larger and higher than I want, they may migrate down a bit but I've got a fair idea how to develop things from here, mashing the cliff and some subterranean views in this panel with the bay and sky in the middle bordered and bisected by road and rail.

I'm hoping to get a fair amount of this done by the end of next week, I'll post images as I go

Alex and Coco at the Old Fitzroy

 

Coco and Alex as well as Graeme (Woolley) and more of the regulars by the fire at @oldfitzy

 

The view from the table outside around dusk with cranes looming over

Woolloomooloo catacombs

 

This brickwork doesn't just hold up the  the houses on Victoria St Potts Pt, it will also be doing a lot to hold together the right panel of the Weave triptych, which tomorrow I'm finally ready to get started on

Steohen Corry drawing at Rough Edges

 

Stephen is a great local artist who draws and makes silverpoint etc etchings and colours the prints. He just finished a mural at Rough Edges in which I painted a few small panels and has a show opening soon - mid September =  at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.

Here he's doing a portrait of Susan, a volunteer at Rough Edges

Dario Chicco, and the Creation of Mick Jagger

 

People sometimes point out a resemblance between me and Mick Jagger. Dario cut the Rolling Stones hair in Melbourne back in the 70s. He contacted me on Facebook offering me a haircut for a photo, and sent along this side by side image

 

LOL, what a lark. How could I say no?

 

Haha, the result.  Perhaps the light is too kind, doesn't bring out the laugh lines. I'm not stopping here. I'm off to see who else can take Mick Jagger photos. 

I might do an Archibald double portrait on the theme, Dario Chicco and the creation of Mick Jagger, with Dario's view of Sydney Harbour through the currently skeletal Crest Hotel

Forest Lodge Studio View

 

I've just moved to a new studio by the gully in the last remaining industrial section of Glebe thanks to Andy Perceval and Seamus. We've been doing some work to paint the walls and floors which is why there hasn't been much happening on this blog recently. 

This is the first drawing I've done there of some of Seamus's junk and the carpark next door

Dream Hub

 

Newtopian Dream - A sleepout in the street last night to protest homelessness, and raise funds to campaign for affordable housing organised by the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. Here are we are early in the morning, with Grace sleeping soundly at the front - she had the sense to bring some sofa cushions.

Thanks to those who told their stories and Newtown Neighbourhood centre as well as everyone who came along and contributed.

 

MCs earlier in the evening

 

sign in

 

Brad and Karen, 2 Newtopians I drew before I got there

Garden of Earthly Delights - photos by Melanie Leaudais

Thanks to Mel for coming over from Weave in Woolloomooloo to take photos of the Garden before the furniture is bolted down, as well to to Garth for helping us move things around and entertain.

There are a heap more photos of its creation on this page with links to posts with a whole lot more

The artists - Grace Woods and John O'Driscoll

me again, playing air paintbrush

Grace

 

With Garth and his friend Josephine

 

Josephine and the apostle Garth again - Garth is one of the apostles(Bartholemew?) in the Newtown Last Supper mural at the Mission , and Grace and I are as well, she's John and I'm Judas

Stanmore Rd outside Newsagency Gallery

 

I minded the Night of the Iguana - Iggy Pop 70th birthday celebration - exhibition at Newsagency Gallery yesterday for a couple of hours. This a view from the front table

Martin bound by stress

 

Martin Walsh

I found a couple of drawings I'd forgotten to scan at the time, this one I drew at Martin's a few weeks ago, and the pelicans below I did for Grace with babies in their beaks, adapted from those she painted on the Garden of Earthly Delights, 

Cliff Munchers

 

Digging out the cliff for a carpark between McElhone and Brougham sts in Woolloomooloo. Another study while getting started on the Weave canvas

Garden of Delights Artists and Garth's broomdance cabaret

 

We got Mel from Weave to come over and shoot some photos of the finished Garden of Earthly Delights at the Record Crate in Glebe . I'll post those in a day or two. But while we had the furniture out of the way Grace Woods came over and and we had a bit of fun in front of the mural, and Garth did a cool broondance, like vaudeville, stills don't quite do it justice. There's also a couple of movies that I'll upload later where Grace and I point out features of interest in the mural - I bet you can't wait.

Thanks Garth for helping to move the tables and camera work

Newtopian Dream

I'm sleeping outside at Newtown Square on August 29 as part of a funds and consciousness raiser for the Newtopian Dream a project organised by Newtown Neighbourhood Centre to shine a spotlight on homelessness and how our system produces it, and bring out about real social change and eliminate homelessness by providing affordable housing. That's not something available to most people in Sydney right now. And nor is Sydney alone in this

I'm going to take my sketch book along and draw the scene and maybe some portraits which I'll post on the blog later. If I sell any of these I'll donate the proceeds

Please follow the link and make a donation to support the Newtopian Dream

Ikea has furniture for every circumstance. I'm happy to announce that Newtown Neighbourhood centre have extensively roadtested the premium cardboard boxes we will be calling home on tuesday night

Cliff Dwellings

 

This cliff is going to play a starring part in the right side panel of the weave painting. Louis Nowra told me, the cliff between Potts Pt and the Loo has been hacked away over the years. Even now a development is chopping away at the rock between McElhone and Brougham Sts for a carpark, One day Bob Askin's DMR will have achieved its dream of converting Woolloomooloo and the Cross into a flat plain

Weave - canvas prep

 

2 of the 3 panels I've now finishing priming at Weave for their big Woolloomooloo painting. They'll be ready to work on this week.

the whole thing ready to go with a few studies that might end up on that right hand panel in the lovely studio I'll be able to use for a while. Grace Woods, who I worked with on the Garden of Earthly Delights came along and started some painting yesterday. I'm hoping to get some other visitors as well

Most of my other Woolloomooloo paintings are here and I'll be gathering the links to my work at Weave here