Australian Official Artist

1999 Wendy Sharpe was appointed Australian Official Artist attached to the Australian Army History Unit at Dili in East Timor, she was the first woman appointed as Official Artist since World War II.

 

December, 1999, Australia with 15 other countries have deployed peacekeeping forces to assist East Timor make the uneasy transition from war to peace.

ID number P03248.006 Photographer: unknown Acquired through the Australian War Memorial Official Commission 2000 at Sea. 18 December 1999, informal portrait of Wendy Sharpe, Australian Official Artist, sketching on board HMAS Jarvis Bay en route to East Timor to document Australia's involvement in the International Force for East Timor(Interfet). Seated next to her (partially obscured) is her escort, Private Cameron Simpson, Army History Unit
IDP's (Internaly Displaced Persons) - 1999, Charcoal
Children in Suai 2000, Gouache and pencil, overall: 34.8cm x 25cm, Australian War Memorial ART91125
Suai Cathederal 2000 Oil on canvas, 136cm x 122cm Private collection.
East Timorese with green light, 2000, Gouache & pastel, 102 x 152cm
Midnight Mass Suai 2000 Oil on canvas 122cm x136cm Private collection
Midnight at Suai Cathedral, 2000, Oil on canvas 122 x 137cm. On Christmas Eve Sharpe went to a mass at Suai Cathedral. The cathedral was the site of a massacre a few months before, the local people had gathered there thinking that it would be safe as it was a holy place and instead they were massacred. At the mass the survivors re-enacted the massacre, they acted out the killing of the nuns and priests, the burning of the houses, and the Interfet coming in as heroes to chase away the militia.
East Timorese children illuminated by tactical chemlights
Dalila & Maria washing clothes, Dili, East Timor. Gouache & pencil on paper, 39 x 55cm.
Timorese children gather around