I’ve always been interested in dramatic lighting and the way the darkness transforms things. The everyday becomes extraordinary and intensified.
Over the years I have constantly returned to painting night scenes; including intimate interiors. City streets, firelight, and shadows.
I am drawn to the theatre where lighting enhances the drama and emotional content. I have worked back stage in venues as diverse as the Sydney Opera house; drawing the Australian Opera and Australian Ballet, in tiny back street burlesque cabarets in Paris and drag shows in Darwin!
The paintings in this exhibition include work from Paris, Sydney and New York, as well as paintings about night as a time of imagination and transformation.
– Wendy Sharpe, 2014
