Styling your home is a deeply personal endeavour, and to get it right, you have to know what you like. For some home staples, there may be a little more wiggle room; if you decide the cream sofa you bought on impulse isn’t quite your style, simply adding cushions and a nice throw can make it align with your aesthetic vision. When you’re shopping for art online, however, there’s no way to ‘dress up’ a canvas you’re second-guessing.
A friend recently showed me an oil painting she was considering for her own home, asking if I thought it would eventually appreciate in value. The advice I gave to her is the same I give to anyone looking to start an art collection; prioritise the pieces you love, not the ones that a gallery assistant claims will make you rich. Unless you’re incredibly active in the art world and obsessively tracking auction prices, it’s relatively unlikely that you’ll make a substantial profit anytime soon. To clarify, I am a huge advocate for starting an art collection, especially when you’re buying original pieces from local artists (Bluethumb Art is a great platform for this), but I also believe the value of collecting shouldn’t be measured in terms of profit. Rather, it’s about supporting local creatives and actually connecting with the work.
Jump to the Australian artists worth knowing if your favourite artist is:
With that being said, I acknowledge that getting started can feel daunting, so to make starting your collection a little more accessible, I’ve curated 6 distinct lists of local Australian artists worth buying from, based on your favourite famous artist. From Picasso’s abstracted portraits to Monet’s painterly depictions of water lilies, there’s something here for everyone, regardless of taste or budget.
If you like Mark Rothko
When we think of Mark Rothko, most of us immediately conjure a mental image of his divisive colour field paintings, which he produced from 1949 to 1970. Some argue that the artist’s signature use of colour and composition is oversimplified; a reading that I can’t personally get behind. From my perspective, which you are absolutely allowed to disagree with, Rothko was able to do, with mere rectangles on coloured backgrounds, what others couldn’t, even with large-scale hyperrealistic works. That is, to convey a pure and raw sense of basic human emotions. Regardless of whether one might like the work, however, his influence on postmodern, abstracted art is undeniable.
If you’re a Rothko fan looking to buy art online, or simply a minimalist after a little extra colour on their walls, there are plenty of brilliant Australian artists worth knowing about; including Sydney-based artist Artem Bryl, whose work has been exhibited across Australia, Europe, and the U.S.A. Lucent is a standout among the artist’s collection, boasting a distinctly Rothko-esque composition paired with Bryl’s expert approach to the abstracted rendering of soft light.
Carolyne Jane is another standout name in this category; in fact, you might already be familiar with her work from the 2024 and 2025 seasons of The Block Australia. Her work offers a fresh take on Australian landscape painting, using a stark contrast between land and sky to communicate the expansiveness of the land and, most importantly, the sense of freedom found in the Outback.
At Sunset We Sail by Bronte Rose Bussenschutt
acrylic on canvas, framed
$408
Lucent by Artem Bryl
acrylic on canvas
$1,955
Pilbara Vivid by Carolyne Jane
acrylic on canvas
$1,445
Evening Fire by Linda Gleeson
acrylic on canvas
$765
If you like Edward Hopper
If you’re an Edward Hopper fan, like myself, you’re likely drawn to high-contrast, intricate compositions, and pointed reflections on our collective engagement with both modernity and the changing environments we inhabit. Another core theme spanning the breadth of Hopper’s oeuvre, however, is an overwhelming sense of isolation. In Nighthawks, Hopper’s most widely known piece, four individuals sit inside a brightly lit diner; none of the subjects engages with one another, and even the diner itself appears completely detached from the empty streets surrounding it. What this creates is an evocative reflection on urbanisation and the notion that despite being ‘packed-in’ to these expansive, densely populated cities, humanity might just be lonelier than ever.
The work of Sydney-based artist Nigel Bailey, a finalist in both the Burwood Art Prize 2026 and the Stanthorpe Art Prize 2026, demonstrates a similar approach to the use of light, composition, and scenes that elicit a sense of familiarity (or, rather, that reframe the ‘ordinary’ as something worth looking more closely at). Personally, I find Bailey’s piece titled ‘Still Evening’ particularly evocative of Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ but with a unique, distinctive quality that runs throughout his wider body of work; in fact, a number of his works are sitting on my own wishlist.
Kate Cannard, a Melbourne-based artist who has previously exhibited at the Melbourne Affordable Art Fair, is another standout artist for this category. With a catalogue of work surrounding urban environments and the complex relationship between humans and the spaces we inhabit, her work boasts the same almost-liminal quality perceptible in many of Edward Hopper’s most famous pieces.
Still Evening by Nigel Bailey
acrylic on canvas
$1,150
Urban Realities: No Parking by Kate Cannard
oil on canvas, framed
$1,950
Power to the People by Stephen Smith
oil on canvas
$442
Carcoar Emporium by David Isbester
oil on linen, framed
$680
If you like Georgia O’Keeffe
While I’ve never been much of a ‘florals enthusiast,’ I’ll always make an exception for the groundbreaking work of Georgia O’Keeffe. After coming into the art scene during a time when, despite producing brilliant, innovative work, women artists were rarely taken as seriously as their male competition (add ‘The Story of Art Without Men‘ by Katy Hessel to your reading list – trust me, she’s fantastic), O’Keeffe was able to make a name for herself as a key figure of the modernist movement. Best known for her watercolour works and close-up paintings of flowers, she still stands as a core source of inspiration for artists, and for my Art History tutors’ lesson plans at uni, to this day.
Transparently, curating a list of Australian artists for O’Keeffe enthusiasts was a challenge; to measure up to her complete mastery of subject rendering and medium, which are both defining factors in the artist’s work, is no small feat. My search, however, was a very worthwhile one, as it led me to Patricia Hillard. Since retirement has now allowed Hillard to pursue art full-time, this Melbourne-based artist has produced numerous intricately detailed renderings of peonies, lilies, roses, and other flora, each demonstrating a complete mastery of form. As such, it’s no surprise that she now boasts multiple awards and her work has been widely exhibited around Victoria.
Abstract Dahlia by Christine Beard
watercolour on paper
$1,317
Heartstrings by Patricia Hillard
acrylic on canvas, framed
$1,600
Arum Lilies by Karen Foster
watercolour on paper
$272
Unfurled by Julie Christensen
watercolour on paper
$4,200
If you like Claude Monet
The work of Claude Monet, otherwise known as the founder of Impressionism, is a great source of inspiration for homemakers trying to start their art collection. His dreamy landscape paintings, characterised by their tranquil quality and dreamy use of diffused light, move away from the heavy subject matter that defines so many movements; instead, they evoke a sense of calm. Just take his famous Water Lilies series, for example; each canvas is drenched in soft colour, dappled sunlight, and loose brushstrokes. They serve as a helpful reminder to find the beauty in everyday settings or, as I like to take it, to disconnect and get back into nature.
Anna Cai, a Sydney-based artist who previously studied under David Taylor, has been quietly gaining momentum in the Australian art scene for her breathtaking large-scale floral pieces. One of which, entitled In Quiet Bloom, seems to carry that same dreamlike quality found in Monet’s works. Boasting Cai’s signature loose brushwork, the work depicts dozens of glowing wildflowers in soft shades of pink, ivory, and gold dotted around an expansive meadow. Intended to reflect the “quiet strength found in nature and the gentle resilience of growth,” it’s a true investment piece for floral enthusiasts.
Another local artist worth watching is Marilyn Dann. Working out of Melbourne, she’s skilled in a variety of styles (even citing Van Gogh as inspiration for past pieces); however, her painting Home feels like the best fit for any Monet enthusiast. Nestled within a vibrant garden of tall gum trees, iris, agapanthus and rhododendron, a small Australian villa takes centre stage, covered in dappled light that reaches through the trees.
Home by Marilyn Dann
acrylic on canvas, framed
$2,031
Water Lillies No 167 by Liliana Gigovic
$1,870
At One With Nature by ETHNE BENN
mixed media on wood, framed
$493
In Quiet Bloom by Anna Cai
oil on canvas
$3,153
If you like Pablo Picasso
The work of Pablo Picasso is among the most recognisable in history; between his signature way of abstracting faces, creations from the famous ‘Blue Period,’ and contributions to both the cubism movement and collage medium, he’s played a key role in shaping the history of art and how we understand it today. In terms of what he painted, Picasso’s subject matter ranged from portraits and still life paintings to sculpture and large-scale political pieces. His portraiture, however, is a personal favourite, characterised by fractured compositions and sharp angles;
I feel the need to fully articulate my bias before jumping into local recommendations; I absolutely adore abstracted portraiture, so I’ll be taking this opening to write about this one facet of Picasso’s creativity exclusively (sorry to those who prefer his other work). And while this piece is on Australian artists, I can’t help but mention the work of Aotearoa-based Hannah Ireland when talking about this kind of subject matter; she is brilliant.
Naturally, there are plenty of talented artists operating on local shores, too. One of which is Andrew Neilan, a Brisbane-based artist with an extensive catalogue of enchantingly strange, abstracted humans. His piece Dreaming of Cricket is my top choice, and reads (to me, at least) as a glorious blend of Picasso’s angular distortions with the eerie liminal quality of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. If this particular piece isn’t quite to your taste, however, I encourage you to have a browse of his other works; he’s a supremely versatile artist, to say the least.
Dreaming of Cricket by Andrew Neilan
acrylic on canvas
$297
Odd one out by Sharon Monagle
acrylic on canvas, framed
$2,680
The Model Blue Interior by Riccado Angelo
acrylic on cardboard
$408
Someday Dreams by Artur Lasota
acrylic on canvas, framed
$459
If you like Jean-Michel Basquiat
Regardless of whether you like his distinctive style, there’s no denying that Jean-Michel Basquiat did what no other artist could: bridge the divide between street art and high-brow art. His work is defined by a visual language that the high-art world hadn’t seen before, involving scratchy typography, crossed-out words, and a repeating motif of heads with their mouths wide open, as if in the middle of speaking. The art was intended to reflect, in his own words, “royalty, heroism, and the streets,” by highlighting societal dichotomies involving wealth, segregation, and internal versus external presentations of self. In essence, his art is brilliant, and so was he.
In recent years, I’ve seen many artists attempt to rework Basquiat’s distinctive style, or create their own interpretations of a high-art street-art blend, with varying degrees of success. Most of these creators, including, dare I say, Banksy, miss the mark entirely or end up producing almost identical recreations of famous works; in my personal opinion, at least. Australia, however, boasts an impressive number of incredible artists who have nailed the style while still maintaining a strong sense of individualism, which is no easy feat.
Among them, an artist going by the name Cold Ghost is a true standout. Based on the Central Coast, Cold Ghost has built an immense catalogue of artworks spanning different mediums and styles and uses mostly recycled materials. If you browse through his catalogue, you’ll find the artist has drawn upon key inspirations, including Basquiat and Andy Warhol (when looking at Cold Ghost’s Marilyn Monroe works, the latter’s influence is particularly apparent). However, each piece is distinctly his own; they’re unique and referential rather than simply recreations.
We The People No.8 by Sam Patterson Smith
mixed media on canvas, framed
$1,870
Loose Lips Sink Ships by Cold Ghost
acrylic on paper, framed
$1,530
Midnight Fires by Bronte Rose Bussenschutt
acrylic on canvas, framed
$399
Yellow Brick Road by Thomas Orrin
mixed media on canvas, framed
$6,120
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