In 1999 Scott Bevan the journalist met Wendy Sharpe the artist. Bevan was on his way to East Timor to report on the country’s transition to independence; Sharpe was the official Australian war artist appointed to cover the INTERFET peacekeeping operation. Bevan could see a story in Sharpe’s role and activities: creating art amid death and destruction. From this chance meeting grew the idea for this book, a series of fifteen interview portraits of Australian painters who have depicted war, from North Africa in 1941 to Iraq in 2003.