In hindsight, the fort seemed obvious.
As the sculptures went in - some industrial and hardy, others a riot of colour against the steady blue of the panoramic ocean surrounds, and others still so naturally ephemeral that you could almost think they grew there - it was hard to imagine them anywhere else. Set against the hardline, functional, no-nonsense organisation of Fort Scratchley, the art seemed to pop - a happy marriage of opposites.
As he wandered among the installations this week, only a few days before his Sculptures at Scratchley exhibition opens for a second time on May 11 with almost double the artists and tripled entries from last year, founder Grahame Wilson began to feel some of the high anxiety of organising starting to settle. Things are coming together.
After shopping the idea around in its inaugural year, Mr Wilson and his artistic partner and wife, Bec, decided to bite the proverbial bullet and fund the exhibition themselves. The initial plan was to have the sculptures spill out around Pacific Park, before Fort Scratchley and its surrounds appeared as a staging platform almost by accident.
In the fort's president, Frank Carter, Mr Wilson found a kindred pragmatic, can-do approach that suited his determination to see the exhibition reach its potential.
NSW had a handful of successful sculpture exhibitions, after all - Sculptures by the Sea was the big name in the game - but nowhere could compare to the kind of epic vistas offered by the fort. Against that view, it was less a wild ambition and more a matter of wondering how had no one thought to do this yet.
"Frank and I are similar ages," Mr Wilson said. "And I think we come from a can-do, let's-make-it-happen place. If there's an obstacle, we'll find our way around it."
Artists have come from across the country to show their work in the two-week exhibition that begins on Saturday.
The showcase ranges from pieces a few centimetres high to a 600 kilogram, nine-metre epic by last year's major prize winner Michael Greve. Greve is the artist responsible for the massive and now-famous timber whale that has been installed at the fort since it was acquired by former lord mayor Jeff McCloy during last year's exhibition. Greve has returned this year with a similarly immense timber ode to the Greek hero Odysseus.
"They are pretty blown away," Mr Wilson said of the artists when they arrived to install their entries and take in their backdrop.
"I keep saying there's nothing to match it in Australia. I've done a few sculpture exhibitions and there's nothing like this.
"It's a bit like us looking at photos of the sculptures, and then you see them in situ and you think 'wow',"
As a ship departing the harbour on Thursday morning weaved between the optical illusion of Edwardo Milan's armada of sculptured boats called Horizon on the fort's hill, you could tell the exhibition founder was still going through the plans.
A few minutes after speaking with him and Out of the Square Media boss Marty Adnum, whose media outfit has come on to support show, Mrs Wilson would come and call her husband to help unload one of the exhibits.
If Mr Wilson is the pragmatic driver with the big ideas, Mrs Wilson is the one with the attention to detail.
"I'm the pragmatist," he said.
"We can be sort of the good cop and the bad cop. I'm the old bad cop ... she has the heart. This is all about art and the artists. It's about the art for me, but Bec is the carer. She cares for all the artists and wants to do the best for them.
"It's about art and the artists and it's about Newcastle and just - I mean - it's just a great place."
The fort's volunteer army is expecting thousands of visitors over the fortnight's run of the exhibition, where most of the pieces are for sale, and six prizes up for grabs. After the winner, second place and highly commended, the exhibition offers a peer's award for the best piece as judged by the artists and a people's choice category, voting for which is available through the exhibition's program that has been published by Out of the Square.
"For (Grahame) and Bec to be able to attract a quantity of art, and the support that they did, on day one with no track record (for the exhibition); someone from WA might think they don't know where Fort Scratchley is," Mr Adnum said. "I think that says a lot about (Mr and Mrs Wilson) in terms of that draw."
"The fort is a sensational icon ... but just as an asset to the city and the region; it's pretty unique to be able to see this artwork for free in such an iconic location - they're just massive assets to this region."
The exhibition opens on Saturday.
