This is 176 Hunter Street, Newcastle, Australia. It’s seen not from the front but the side, which faces a laneway. It’s only a narrow block, not a famous building – most people would barely notice that it exists.
Yet when it was built, probably in the mid-late 1800s, it had ornate window decorations and high ceilings – whoever designed the building took pride in it. Perhaps it was the headquarters of a growing company with great ambitions, who knows? There’s nothing left to indicate its original owners now.
Over the decades, the building has obviously gone through multiple owners and has been repurposed several times. At some point, the floors were moved, as shown by the windows being roughly bricked up, with little care taken to match the original bricks, and new windows opened up with no attempt to mimic the original style.
In the 1960s or 70s the ugly awning was added down at ground level, an air conditioner balanced on top of it. It’s not all decay though, the building is still alive, still stately, still eye catching in its own unique way.
When painting it, I wanted to cast a long shadow over the building to reflect the passing of time, with the area in the shadow sketchier, rougher, and the sunlit part hinting at its earlier grandeur. As the painting developed it became more night and day, and I decided I didn’t mind it that much. I also had to add evidence of the building still being alive – what better way than a cat in the shadow, trying to work out how to knock down the pot plant on the floor above?
