Opera & Ballet

"I made masses of quick charcoal sketches directly from the dancers, sometimes only a few lines expressing a movement or the feel of choreography."

Wendy Sharpe

The Opera Series - Paintings and Drawings, King Street Gallery on Burton, Darlinghurst, Sydney 2006
Artist Back Stage - Opera 2006 Oil on canvas 122cm x 136cm Private collection
Artist with Couple and Paper Moon 2006 Oil on canvas 122cm x 136cm
Back Stage Artist - Upside Down 2006 Oil on canvas 122cm x 136cm Collection: The Arts Centre Victoria.
Small Opera Paintings 2006 Oil on canvas (all works) 30cm x 25cm
Back Stage Opera Drawings 2006 Carcoal and Carcoal/pastel each 59cm x 84cm. Photographed at Wendy Sharpe's Saint Peters Studio, Sydney.
Back Stage Opera Drawings 2006 Exhibition.
Die Fledermaus 2006 Charcoal and pastel 59cm x 64cm Private collection.
Visiting the studio, Graeme Murphy AO with dancer and creative associate Janet Vernon in 2009. Murphy had recently choreographed a new production of The Firebird, a ballet that tells of a spell cast by an ogre whose soul lives in an egg. Murphy's ballet was a tribute to the Ballets Russes, the company founded and directed by Serge Diaghilev, who first brought his troupe from St Petersburg to Paris in 1909. The Ballets Russes' Firebird premiered a year later, in 1910. As part of the 100year Ballets Russes celebration Wendy Sharpe drew and painted The Australian Ballet in the new Murphy production.
Firebird drawings at The Ballets Russes Exhibition - 2009
Firebird drawing 2009 Charcoal
Firebird drawing 2009 Charcoal and pastel
Firebird drawing 2009 Charcoal and pastel
Firebird drawing 2009 Charcoal and pastel
Firebird Series 2009 (all works) Oil on linen 30cm x 25cm Artist's collection.
Petrushka 2009 Gouache Concertina book 17cm x 92cm Artist's collection.
Sharpe in Beijing painting a Chinese Opera series on gold silk 2015.
Chinese Opera - works on paper 2015
Chinese Opera paintings together with costume items 2015