20 min
Fallible EP 2 - Wendy Sharpe Fallible Podcast
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- Society & Culture
The average pedestrian would never know that behind the dusty street corners, nostalgic terraces and anti-Westconnex signs of one quiet street in St Peters, Sydney, lies award-winning artist Wendy Sharpe’s studio.
A simple note pinned to the door of her warehouse says, "Wendy Sharpe? Please ring lower bell."
Those brave enough to ring enter a fantastic realm filled with gilt chandeliers, paintings, piles of clothes, scribbles, swatches, and an enormous table where Sharpe herself sits painting.
Over a 35 year career, Sharpe has quietly developed a reputation for paintings and drawings filled with bold brushstrokes, vibrant colours and strong female characters.
In 1986, she won the Sulman Prize: an eclectic award for subject and genre paintings. Ten years later, she took out its more famous sister prize, the Archibald, with Self Portrait as Diana of Erskineville, 1996.
She’s been a war artist, a teacher and a humanitarian portrait-maker, creating works from a vast array of materials, hundreds of thousands of marks telling her unique stories.
And beneath those marks, 2 layers or 10 layers deep: countless mistakes.
The average pedestrian would never know that behind the dusty street corners, nostalgic terraces and anti-Westconnex signs of one quiet street in St Peters, Sydney, lies award-winning artist Wendy Sharpe’s studio.
A simple note pinned to the door of her warehouse says, "Wendy Sharpe? Please ring lower bell."
Those brave enough to ring enter a fantastic realm filled with gilt chandeliers, paintings, piles of clothes, scribbles, swatches, and an enormous table where Sharpe herself sits painting.
Over a 35 year career, Sharpe has quietly developed a reputation for paintings and drawings filled with bold brushstrokes, vibrant colours and strong female characters.
In 1986, she won the Sulman Prize: an eclectic award for subject and genre paintings. Ten years later, she took out its more famous sister prize, the Archibald, with Self Portrait as Diana of Erskineville, 1996.
She’s been a war artist, a teacher and a humanitarian portrait-maker, creating works from a vast array of materials, hundreds of thousands of marks telling her unique stories.
And beneath those marks, 2 layers or 10 layers deep: countless mistakes.
20 min