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 by Cindy Goode Milman
Three art friends made our way to the city for a Saturday Wendy Sharpe Master class organised by Simon at S. H. Ervin Gallery, part of the National Trust of Australia complex, held in conjunction with the survey exhibition of Wendy Sharpe: The Imagined Life (26 February – 10 April).
The workshop began at 10am sharp with Wendy taking us through her exhibition and describing various techniques and approaches. Some of the most poignant tips which stuck in my mind were-
- The use of oil pastel sticks on small and certain areas of some of her recent paintings creating not just a vibrant mark but invariably a focal point which the composition often swirled around
- Incredible still lifes of models in shades of red and greens used by her lighting in the studio to garner the effect and thus produce an interesting colour range of portraiture paintings
- The use of coloured chalk, gouache and charcoal in her sketchbooks and folio drawings
Up we then went to a designated room area set aside for the day’s class. Armed with our own new box of coloured chalk we began a series of life model warm up studies of 1 up to 5 minutes.
The technique was to capture the form of the pose in fast rough markings then to go back in on the drawing to create and insert the detail as demonstrated (above) by Wendy.
From this urgent sketch the continued process was to block major areas with vibrant colours creating a more solid representation of the work.
Breaking for lunch we shared lovely sandwiches in a conference room and had the pleasure of Wendy sharing and answering any and all of our questions.
Back to the drawings and longer poses were provided (20 minutes) allowing us to create more tonal portraits of our lovely life model.
The day was incredible, largely due to the galleries’ professional organisation and mostly due to Wendy herself who is a passionate artist, patient and encouraging teacher and wonderful and interesting person to spend time with.
Wendy Sharpe: The Imagined Life
26 February – 10 April
More information - National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery
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