Australian Art News at Art News Blog is a listing of all the blog posts that focus on arts, design, and photography news in Australia.

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• William Dobell Drawing Prize 2007 - In Sydney at the Art Gallery of NSW, the winner of the Dobell Prize for drawing has been announced. Ana Pollak's "Mullet Creek" has taken first place, giving the artist $20,000.
• New Van Gogh and Not a Van Gogh - I mentioned this Vincent van Gogh painting last year when experts were unsure about the authenticity of the work. It turns out that it isn't a Van Gogh painting, nor is it a forgery.
• Australian Aboriginal Art Auction - Australian Aboriginal art jumped in value this week with a Sotheby's auction in Sydney that got bidders excited.
• Artist Studios - Leith let me know of a show about artist studios that was on television in Australia recently. I missed it, but thanks to this wonderful thing called "the Internet", I can still see it online (and share it with people all over the world.)
• NAIDOC Week in Australia - Google has celebrated NAIDOC Week with a doodle on the Google Australia homepage. NAIDOC stands for "National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee" and is a week long celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia.
• Hunter Valley Flood Photos - I have a really good excuse for not posting much lately. The region that I live in has been flooded. So I had to evacuate for a few days while the danger of being flooded passed. Thankfully the river that passes through Maitland didn't rise as high as expected and my home stayed dry, but a lot of rural and lower lying homes went under.
• Paul Ruiz Paintings - Anyone interested in expressive figurative paintings might find the work of Paul Ruiz interesting. His charcoal drawings are impressive too. Theyre very Frank Auerbach (filled with emotion and almost carved out of paper)
• ANB in the Sydney Morning Herald - Art News Blog was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. I must admit that I still feel uncomfortable blowing my own horn and mentioning such things, but I'm getting over it.. slowly.
• Stock Ticker Symbol Paintings - WOW - I think it helps to know the subject that you paint. For example, if I was a farmer I would probably paint cows and chickens because it's what I would know best. But what would I paint if I was a stockbroker in a past life?... Stock ticker symbols!!
• The Old Time by John Brack - A painting by the Australian artist John Brack sold at auction for a record price this week, making "The Old Time" the most expensive Australian painting. The painting of a ballroom dancing couple sold for about $3.3 million dollars.
• Brett Whiteley Studio Free - Entry into the studio/museum of one Australia's most famous artists will now be free. A partnership with JPMorgan and the Art Gallery of NSW has allowed the door fee to be taken away from the Brett Whiteley Studio in Sydney.
• Archibald Prize Winner for 2007 - John Beard has won the Archibald Prize in Sydney. My prediction was wrong, so I'm glad I'm not a gambling man. The subject of the portrait is the installation artist Janet Laurence.
• Archibald Packing Room Prize Winner - Australia's most talked about art prize will soon (March 2) announce the winner for 2007. They have already announced what is called the "Packing Room Prize", which is where the gallery staff that install the exhibition get to vote for a winner.
• Christopher Lees Painting Video - Leith has let me know of this painting video below on YouTube. It's of the Australian painter Christopher Lees working on a large painting called "Harmony Reign". It's set to classical music and really works. It was also quite frustrating for me as I don't have a studio to paint in!
• Sydney Artist Wanted - If you're female, an artist, and live close to Sydney, the Motion Picture Company might have a job for you. They're looking for a female artist to appear in a music video and paint a mural. It could be a chance to get your 3 or 4 minutes of fame, depending on how long the song is.
• Byron Bay Photos - Anyway, here's some photos of Byron Bay. It's a small coastal town on the north coast of NSW, Australia. There's plenty of beautiful beaches, forests, tourists!, and a big alternative culture there.
• Aboriginal Rock Art Saved? - The Western Australian government has seen the light and will no longer oppose the heritage listing of an area in the Dampier Archipelago, which will save some of the oldest art in the world on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.
• Free Hugs - Something not very related to art, but something that noone can have too much of; FREE HUGS! The hugger is Juan Mann and the music is from the Sick Puppies.
• Caroline Magerl Interview - Painter and Illustrator - Recently I asked the Australian painter and illustrator Caroline Magerl a few questions about her art. She's an artist that seems to benefit from the two arts (illustrating and painting), rather than one distracting or detracting from the other.
• Wacom Artist Profile of Leith O'Malley - Fellow Australian artist Leith O'Malley has been profiled on the Asian Wacom community website this month. Leith does a good job of blurring the line between paint and pixels.
• Record Brett Whiteley Price - One of my favorite artists recently broke his own sales record at a recent Sotheby's auction in Australia. The four meter wide painting by Brett Whiteley sold for $2.04 million in Sydney lastnight.
• Fake Vincent van Gogh in Australia? - The National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia may have itself an expensive fake Vincent van Gogh portrait. British experts on the Dutch master have come up with a list of inconsistencies, which point toward the work being a forgery.
• Australian Artists Online - I plan to post small lists of artists by country that I come across online. I'm starting with Australian artists because I'm biased.. and Australian ;-)
• Money Paintings - Euro Series - The Australian artist Anthony White has started work on the Euro series of paintings. After the success of his USD, AUD, and Pound series of money, he expects similar interest in the Euros series.
• Aboriginal Art Industry - The Aboriginal art industry in Australia has seen a dramatic rise in popularity during recent times. With the value of the paintings increasing, corruption and fraud are also increasing.
• Most Expensive Australian Painting - John Brack - After recently mentioning the most expensive British painting to be sold at auction ($35.8 million US dollars), Australia's most expensive painting that sold recently by John Brack doesn't sound that impressive.
• Hazel Dooney Print - The Australian artist Hazel Dooney has a high resolution work that can be downloaded online and printed out as an original print. She will also sign the work if you send it to her, along with a stamped, self addressed envelope.
• Auction House Christie's Closes in Australia - Christie's in Sydney and Melbourne will be closing up shop after it's last auction on April 10. The international auction house has had an Australian arm since 1969, and has returned a profit for the past 11 years, but that isn't enough to keep Christies Australia open.
• National Gallery of Australia Kandinsky Painting - If Australia was outraged at paying $1 million for a Jackson pollock in the 70s, I can't imagine the controversy of paying $35 million for a Wassily Kandinsky painting "Sketch for Deluge II". The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) were thinking about buying the important work by the Russian expressionist/abstract painter.
• Art Gallery of New South Wales Acquires Cy Twombly - The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney is delighted to announce one of most significant acquisitions the Gallery has ever made - Cy Twombly's Three studies from the Temeraire.
• Pro Hart - The art Mafia doesn't like me - This week the Australian artist Pro Hart died, so there has been quite a bit about him the media. Most reports seem to highlight the fact that he was never collected by any important art museums in Australia.
• Rupert Murdoch Portrait Painting - The British portrait artist Jonathan Yeo has finished a portrait of one of the most powerful men in the media industry. The Australian born, American adopted media mogul of the News Corporation company (yes, he owns the Simpsons cartoon too!), Rupert Murdoch sat for Yeo in his London studio.
• Rolf Harris's Portrait of the Queen - Australian expat Rolf Harris, now based in the United Kingdom caused a bit of a stir with his portrait of the Queen.