'Paris Studio'  Original:  Oil on canvas 50.0 x 59.2cm.
Edition of 99 prints:  Pigment Colours on Hahnemühle 'Artist's Canvas' then 1 additional finish. 50.0 x 59.2cm

Unframed AUD$1500

Framed AUD$2375

Wendy Sharpe.  (Sydney)

 

In 1986, at the age of 26, Wendy Sharpe was awarded a studio tenancy at the Cité International des Arts in Paris. That same year she received the Dyason Bequest; the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship and the Sulman Prize (judged by Albert Tucker). The years leading up to the present were also filled with numerous awards, commissions and exhibitions attesting to Wendy's steady and persistent presence and recognition as a significant figure in Australian art.

 

 Maintaining a consistent style of loosely painted figurative work, Wendy Sharpe's 1996 winning Archibald portrait 'Diana of Erskineville' graces the cover of the recently published 'Let's Face it - The History of the Archibald Prize' published by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Through the years 1998-1999, Wendy was commissioned to create 8 large murals for the Cook and Philip Aquatic Centre in Sydney, her ideas and images following and paying tribute to the life of Australia's Annette Kellermann (The Australian Mermaid) from childhood until her mature years.

 

This is now one of the largest mural commissions ever completed in Australia.

 

In late 1999, Wendy was commissioned as an Official Australian War Artist (The first female artist to be so commissioned since World War 2), to observe and document the East Timor effort. The results - a stunning series of sketchbook works, drawings, gouaches and paintings - forms part of the permanent collection housed at The Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

 

Her most recent major exhibition 'Travel Paintings' at was the feature exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane in October 2004.

 

The work shown here is a new and different extension of her 'Travel Paintings' series and \ is wonderful example of the clarity and strength of her art.

 

Wendy is represented in many private collections here and overseas as well as in Public Collections in a number of countries.

 

Art Gallery of New South Wales,

Australian Embassy, Paris,

BHP Australia,

Qantas,

City of Sydney Council,

University of Sydney,

Kedumba Drawing Collection,

Orange Regional Gallery

Waverley Council,

Warringah Council