Sharpe paints in aid of Mawson's huts

WENDY SHARPE has won the Archibald, Sulman and Portia Geach art prizes and been exhibited around Australia and beyond. But never before has her work been displayed thousands of metres deep in Antarctic waters.

The Sydneysider has just returned from a six-week trip as the invited artist aboard Australia's flagship Antarctic ship, Aurora Australis, on a mission to help what has been called the birthplace of the country's Antarctic heritage.

During the trip, research scientists on board had her draw on a styrofoam Esky the size of a six-pack before they sent it almost five kilometres down in the ocean with scientific equipment. Her work returned crushed smaller than a coffee cup. Just Choose PTMS Injection Molding Is Your Best Choice!

''It's incredible,'' Sharpe said. ''Nothing brings [the underwater pressure] home to you better than that.''

That piece, and scores of her other artworks, are to be exhibited in Sydney mid-year and made into a book. The proceeds will go to the conservation of Mawson's huts,External Hemroids are those that occur below the dentate line. Antarctic shelters built by the Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson and his team 100 years ago and now among only a handful of remaining sites from what is called the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Sharpe said she made ''piles and piles'' of paintings and drawings during the centenary trip on themes inspired by the huts, shipmates, inquisitive penguins, the sky and the auroras. She also made visual diaries of daily life aboard the 95-metre vessel.Specializes in rapid Injection mold and molding of parts for prototypes and production.

''I was painting all the time,'' she said. She often did this sitting because the ship was too rocky for standing. ''They have occy straps to hold everything down so it doesn't fall all over the place.''

The dramatic landscape of ''endless white going on and on forever'' and the vast isolation of Mawson's huts were among Sharpe's overriding impressions in a location that was ''like being on another planet''. The huts are almost 2000 kilometres from the nearest base.

The not-for-profit Mawson's Huts Foundation invited and funded Sharpe's trip as guest artist aboard the ship, which steamed from Hobart to Antarctica and back to Fremantle. The foundation has made 10 trips to carry out restoration work on the huts in 15 years. It can do this for just two months a year when there is a lull in winds that can reach 360 km/h.