
International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
International Art | Painting
The prodigal son c.1780-1840
UNKNOWN
International Art | Sculpture
Spinario cast late 19th century
after School of PASITELES
Asian Art | Print
Courtesans (reprint) unknown
after EISEN
Asian Art | Sculpture
Flying horse of Kansu cast 1973
after EASTERN HAN ARTIST
International Art | Sculpture
Bust of Niccolo da Uzzano unknown
after DONATELLO
International Art | Sculpture
Borghese warrior 19th century
after AGASIUS THE EPHESIAN
Pacific Art | Fibre
Jipai (mask) 2011
AFEX, Ben
International Art | Glass
Decanter c.1875-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
International Art | Glass
Vase c.1880-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
International Art | Glass
Vase c.1880-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
Contemporary Australian Art | Installation
Blackboards with pendulums 1992
KENNEDY, Peter
International Art | Drawing
Design
ADAM, Sicander
International Art | Metalwork
Tea urn c.1770-1800
ADAM STYLE
International Art | Ceramic
Long necked vase c.1900-50
ACOMO PUEBLO
Pacific Art | Photograph
'Te Waiherehere', Koroniti, Wanganui River, 29 May 1986 1986, printed 1997
ABERHART, Laurence
Pacific Art | Photograph
Nature morte (silence), Savage Club, Wanganui, 20 February 1986 1986, printed 1999
ABERHART, Laurence
Pacific Art | Photograph
Angel over Whangape Harbour, Northland, 6 May 1982 1982, printed 1991
ABERHART, Laurence
Australian Art | Drawing
A memory of Gumeracha (study of flies) 1908
HEYSEN, Hans
Pacific Art | Print
The boxer 2009
ABEL, Patrik
By Glenn R Cooke
March 2007
Penny Sharpe was encouraged in her artistic pursuits by her mother Estelle Sharpe and acknowledges especially the influence of Miss Ida Martin, the art teacher at the Ascot State School, on her primary school education. She briefly attended Fairholme College, Toowoomba and completed junior high school at Clayfield College before enrolling in the commercial art course at the Central Technical College (CTC) where she studied with Melville Haysom. When Sharpe completed the course she worked as a commercial artist on a freelance basis so was able to obtain further instruction in Haysom's Saturday morning classes where she developed a sure sense of draftsmanship. She tired of commercial art and worked as a governess for some time before she met and married David Murphy in 1963. She exhibited in the various prize competitions in Brisbane for some years: Caltex Centenary Prize (1959), Warana-Caltex Prize (1970–72), Redcliffe Art Contest (1961–64 and 1971–72) and the Royal National Association (1962–63, 1970 and 1972).
Sharpe became a member of the Glenmorgan Art Group (founded in 1970) which was one of the first groups to take advantage of the pottery courses offered through Mervyn Moriarty's Australian Flying Arts School. Sharpe potted for more than twenty years, taking instruction from tutors such as Kevin Grealy, and produced pottery influenced by Japanese aesthetics. She held several exhibitions of her work in Toowoomba. Subsequently she spun and wove the fleece of her sheep and is presently involved in cloisonné enamelling and jewellery making.
This watercolour is the product of Sharpe's studies with Melville Haysom and the subjects chosen for these classes naturally were close by the CTC grounds. (Boats on the Brisbane River) was painted from the police boat wharf between Mary Street and the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and the choice of subjects continued to chart the importance of the river to the city of Brisbane. Sharp's experimentation with watercolour washes at this time brought a new freedom into her work. Although the teaching of the CTC was shortly to be decried as being archaic and based in nineteenth-century artistic systems, Sharpe’s work of demonstrates the level of skill this training could achieve. The watercolour includes outlines in Indian ink — a favoured technique during the period, seen also in the work of Margaret Olley (see Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris 1950 and Château Fontcreuais Cassis 1951) — but Sharpe’s washes of colour are even blockier and broader. It is an accomplished production.
1941
- present
Full profile for SHARPE, Penny