Painting Pyrmont with Jane Bennett

Capturing Sydney’s Vanishing Industrial Heritage in Art

Sydney artist Jane Bennett has spent over four decades capturing the gritty, evolving character of Pyrmont, Ultimo, and other inner-city industrial precincts. Her en plein air paintings, created on-site amid demolition zones and construction sites, serve as both artworks and historical documents, recording the city’s relentless transformation.

Anzac Bridge panorama 2016 oil on canvas 100 x 195cm

Neighbourhood Media sat down with Jane to hear about her work, her process, and the stories behind the sites she paints.

Your work captures the changing face of Pyrmont and Ultimo with incredible detail. What first drew you to these inner-city industrial landscapes?

In the early 1980s, while searching for a studio, I spent hours wandering through the inner city. As soon as I saw the Pyrmont Goods Yard and Fingerwharves, I felt inexplicably drawn to the area. I seem to have an instinct for choosing places right on the brink of disappearance. It was frustrating trying to paint under that invisible but looming deadline, as entire suburbs vanished faster than I could capture them. Yet the poignancy of that impermanence was part of the attraction. I try to paint landscapes caught at a moment of transition — just as the bulldozer takes its first bite — capturing the tension between past and future.

Jane Bennett at Pyrmont Festival

Documenting Pyrmont

You’ve been painting this area for decades. How have you seen the neighbourhood transform, and how has that influenced your work?

Almost everything I’ve painted has either been demolished or radically altered. Pubs have been gentrified, workers’ cottages replaced by apartment towers, and derelict wharves converted into glass-fronted offices. In recent years, I’ve begun revisiting sites I painted decades ago, creating “Then and Now” pairings. For example, a painting I made in 1995 of the high-pressure boilerhouse at the old CSR Refinery now hangs alongside new works depicting the Jackson’s Landing apartments built on that same site.

This series isn’t just about visual changes — it’s a narrative of dismantling. An industrial memento mori. My paintings aim to express the conflict between hope for the future and regret for the past.

What’s your process when approaching a new site? Do you paint on location or back in the studio?

Painting the White Bay Power Station

All my work — even the largest canvases — is painted entirely on location. I’m a plein air painter, setting up my easel on demolition sites, rooftops, or by the roadside. It’s not always easy, contending with unpredictable weather, heavy equipment, and curious onlookers, but it’s worth it for the authenticity.

Spending hours in a space lets you observe the subtle changes in light, atmosphere, and community rhythms. Often, I won’t even know why a viewpoint matters to me until I’ve sat with it for a while, then it reveals itself.

Your work holds a strong sense of memory and documentation. Do you see yourself more as a chronicler or storyteller?

'White Bay Power Station' 2003 acrylic on paper 112 x 75 cm

Both. My paintings act as visual testimony to the passing of an era but also hold narrative threads of place, memory, and unexpected connections. I’ve painted old industrial sites only to find, years later, their remnants scattered elsewhere. Discovering a steel ladder from the old Ballast Point fuel tanks rusting at the back of White Bay Power Station felt like bumping into an old friend.

Jane Bennett: Historian Storyteller

In a rapidly gentrifying city, do you feel a responsibility to capture these sites before they vanish?

Absolutely. There’s always a sense of urgency. In 2023, I painted a series documenting the Hunter Street Metro demolition. Some canvases stretched nearly two metres wide, painted six days a week in the CBD. Strangers would watch over my gear or haul paintings undercover in the rain. Those spontaneous connections often lead to new works — someone tips you off about a site, a hidden viewpoint, or a building days from demolition.

Sydney Harbour from roof of White Bay Power Station 2011 oil on canvas 153 x 101cm

Painting on location embeds you in a place’s daily rhythm. It invites conversation, and over time, you feel adopted by these communities. They shape my work and how I see this ever-changing city.