Tag Archives: Architecture

PAINTING NEW YORK

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The last couple of weeks I’ve been locked in the studio finishing work on a book to be released early next year.

I got started on a couple of urban landscapes based on parts of New York. Early one morning I walked down under Brooklyn bridge. There was a lot of road work going on and huge trailers were lined up along a side street. They appeared to be accommodation for road workers – like a gypsy camp under the bridge. Big sections of road were fenced off and there seemed to be uncoordinated  people and machinery everywhere. So much activity in a city that doesn’t seem to stop, and I’m just rubbing the sleep out of my eyes – that’s where this first painting comes from.

This painting is based on the chaotic textures, bars, buildings and patriotism of East Village. Both paintings are a mix of watercolor, collage, Gouache, Gesso, ink and charcoal, built up in layers like the graffiti that lines many of the city’s walls.

COOBER PEDY

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Coober Pedy is a strange town. Half the population live underground and most of what appears above ground is weirdly tacky.

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The landscape is sparse, barren and pink

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Tourist attractions and opal sales blend into crass, desperate attempts to extract money from passing visitors

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Underground houses are burrowed into the hillsides around the town

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It is a strange sight, TV antennas, satelite dishes and solar heaters apparently mounted on the ground.

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Makeshift structures of corrugated iron and junk are everywhere.

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Trashed cars abandoned on the streets don’t look at all out of place

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Architecture leans more towards functional than decorative.

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The odd time function gives way to decoration the theme of over the top tackiness still triumphs.

The town is incredibly unique and, after a while, the trashy mixture of junk, dirt and recycled tin becomes oddly appealing.

FREO

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Freo (West Australian for Fremantle) was the old, original settlement in WA, before Perth developed. Miraculously, many of the old buildings remain and have been well preserved.

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Not just individual buildings remain in tact, but whole streetscapes have been saved.

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In the downtown area there are beautiful examples of renovated Georgian and Victorian architecture .

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Great shops and lots of cafes and bars are scattered about the main part of town.

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Gothic picnic table lurking outside a Freo church

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One of the interesting features of “Freo” is the Little Creatures Brewery. Great beer and food in a fantastic waterfront location.

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They even hire out bikes for free to help patrons wobble home

MONASTIC

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NEW NORCIA

A couple of hours North East of Perth is the monastic town of New Norcia. Established by Benedictine Monks in 1846, the town is still centred around the Monastery and Church. At its peak New Norcia housed 80 monks and farmed almost a million acres. Sheep, cattle, pigs, goats and bees were raised and grain crops, grapes, olives, fruit and vegetables were grown. They still have a bakery, produce olive oil and wine, and sell the surplus from the orchard and vegie garden through the Museum shop. There are only 9 monks running New Norcia at present.

The museum gives a great insight into the early days of the town. The collection of religious art is fantastic and the Abbey Ale is heavenly.

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St Ildephonsus College

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Former Policemans cottage – looks like he must have been a really tall policeman but, for some reason, the wall is only 4′ high.

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St Gertrude’s College (back door)

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Finely hand carved  and gilded wooden alter

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Monastery

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Apiary hand made bricks, timber and tin

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Device for processing honey

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Inside apiary (panorama from mobile phone)

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Unidentified building with 1 hour late sundial on Northern wall

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Olive oil processing shed

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Old Wine Press

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Graves of 3rd & 4th Abbots – all the former Abbots are buried along a line running through the center of the town. This line forms the long axis of a cross on which the town is laid out.

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Monastic beer tap pumping Abbey Ale (7+%) in the New Norcia Pub

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Pub Verandah

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Monks wash basin

TIMBER, BRICKS AND TIN

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GREAT NORTHERN HIGHWAY – Architecture

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The Great Northern Highway runs from Kununurra in the North of WA right down to Perth in the South. We rejoined the Highway at Newman and followed it south to just below Cue where we headed west to the coast.

There is some pretty impressive architecture along the way, particularly in the old gold mining towns. Here are some of the more quirky examples of buildings we encountered.

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Meekatharra open air picture theater.

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Ralph’s take away food – Meekatharra

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Sadly neglected example of asbestos sheeting at its best.

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Corrugated Iron opulence – Cue

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Thin House – Cue

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Great Fingall  mine office – Built by Italian stonemasons in 1902 and abandoned in 1918

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Three horse stable, Cue

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Unfortunately, the old hospital at Cue has been left to crumble to a pile of rubble. This building was in use up until 1942. I guess the local councils don’t have the funds to maintain these old buildings and, unless the State or Federal Government can be convinced of heritage value , their plight is doomed. Amazing, the destruction that can take place in less than 70 years.

MOUNTAINS OF IRON

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KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

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The Karijini landscape is dominated by the Hamersley Ranges. These are probably the oldest mountains on earth, the rocks dating back 2,500 million years. Driving through the Hamersleys is unique and beautiful. The undulating hills are covered with spinifex and broken by exposed weathered faces of deep red rock.

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Cutting through the landscape are numerous gorges. Some are accessed by a short walk, others require climbing and scrambling over rocks and ledges, and some can only be reached with ropes and climbing equipment.

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Some of the gorges narrow down to passages just wide enough for a person to squeeze through

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Others are broad and open with clear pools at the bottom

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Looking down into the deeper gorges is an awesome sight. The surrounding country is undulating and fairly unspectacular, but the gorges seem to drop way below the surrounding landscape.

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Passing sculptors have installed some impressive structures using just rocks and gravity.

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Waterfalls and waterholes are found throughout the gorges

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The water is usually freezing cold but, somehow, backpackers seem to be tolerant to near freezing water

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Whistling Kite – Pentax K20D 18 -250mm lens

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Scattered through the gorges are veins of blue asbestos. The Wittenoom and Yampire gorges have been closed because of the high concentration of asbestos

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KARIJINI VISITORS CENTRE

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Architect John Nicholes designed the Karijini Visitors Centre to weather into the landscape. Most of the exterior of the structure is built from heavy welded steel panels. These are acid washed to rust, echoing the iron ore outcrops of the landscape.

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It is an impressive building that also hints at the rusted remnants of the areas pastoral history.

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Old rusted Pilbra sheepyards, built from flattened oil drums

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Power is provided by a large solar array with a thumping big diesel generator, waiting for a rainy day.

NORTHERN TERRITORY ARCHITECTURE

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The Northern Territory has its own unique style of architecture created to cope with  the hot tropical climate. Some of the most important examples of pre WWII N T architecture are the Burnett Houses.

Beni Burnett was born in Mongolia, raised in China and worked in Singapore, Japan and China. His Northern Territory buildings are influenced by the Colonial architecture of Malaysia and Singapore.

He employed a system of screened asbestos cement louvers to allow for cross ventilation, no matter which way the breeze was blowing. Open eaves, ventilated roof ridging and open topped internal walls provided easy evacuation of warm air. Steep pitched roofs and two story construction also aid in keeping the building cool.

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“K Type” Burnett House – 1939

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“E Type”  Burnett House – 1939

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Parliament house in Darwin echoes the colonial windows and louvers of the traditional Burnett House

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This is the toilet block at the old Fanny Bay Gaol  Darwin. From waist height, external walls are timber stud frame with fly wire mesh attached. The internal walls also stop at waist height. Great for ventilation, not so good for privacy. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may have had an influence on Burnett’s designs. I’d like to think so. The Burnett houses were originally designed for high ranking public servants. I’d like to think they lived in houses influenced by a prison toilet block.

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SKETCHES

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Embroidery mesh was used to press geometric squares into the colonial windows. White Gouache was also used in the sketches.

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One of my favourite examples of NT architecture is the Glenn Murcutt “Bowali Visitors Centre” in Kakadu National Park. Built of  formed, tinted concrete, corrugated iron, steel and timber. Its colours and textures look to have come directly from the ground it sits on. The building feels big and open and natural, inspired by one of the rock art galleries in the Park

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Information signs are made of 1/4″ steel plate, laser cut and left to rust. Here they are suspended by wire in front of an off the form concrete wall panel Tinted with natural ochre.