Bluethumb Art Gallery facts for kids

Bluethumb is an online art marketplace in Australia. It's a place where artists can show and sell their artwork to people all over the country.

Brothers Edward and George Hartley started Bluethumb in 2011. Today, more than 20,000 Australian artists, both new and well-known, display their art on the platform. Some of these artists have even been finalists for the famous Archibald Prize, like Kim Leutwyler.

In November 2015, Bluethumb represented Australia at the Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark. They earned this spot after winning a competition called Creative3 Pitch. After this, Bluethumb received money from investors like Adam Schwab and Jeremy Same. This money helped them add more artwork to the site and improve their technology and advertising. In 2017, they received more investment. This helped Bluethumb create a fair and clear platform for Indigenous art centers to sell their artists' work online.

The Bluethumb Art Prize

What is the Art Prize?

The Bluethumb Art Prize started in 2016. It's a special competition for artists. It's free to enter, and artists can submit their work online. They can even change their entry before the deadline. A cool thing about this prize is that the art is available for sale throughout the competition.

The first Bluethumb Art Prize was very popular. It had more entries than the Archibald Prize that year! The winner in 2016/2017 was Kirsten Sivyer. She won $10,000 for her surrealist painting called Home Away From Home. The runner-up was Jimmy Donegan, a past winner of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. His painting was titled The Pukara Rock Hole.

Bluethumb Art Prize 2018

The Bluethumb Art Prize 18 launched in late 2017. It received 2,346 entries, which was double the number from the first year. This made it Australia's biggest new art prize!

They added four new awards, each worth $2,000:

• Works on Canvas and Board
• Works on Paper
• Photography
• Other Media

The artist with the highest-scoring artwork from these four categories won the main $10,000 prize. Also, all finalists could be voted for by the public online to win the People's Choice Award.

Kim Hyunji, an artist from Melbourne, won the Works on Canvas award. She also won the overall $10,000 Bluethumb Art Prize for her oil painting, Painless (Luke). She even won the People's Choice Award!

Other winners included:

• Erin Nicholls won the Works on Paper Award for Smoke.
• Illawanti Ungkutjuru Ken, from Tjanpi Desert Weavers, won the Other Media Award for her woven basket Patupiri Wiltja.
• Alice Blanch received the Photography Award for her mysterious piece, A Shifting Stillness #4.

Bluethumb App: Uncover Australian Art

In November 2013, Bluethumb launched a special app called "Bluethumb – Uncover Australian Art." It's available for both iOS and Android phones. This app was the first Australian art app that allowed artists to sell their artwork directly through a mobile app. It even won the Best Shopping App award at the Australian Mobile & App Design Awards in 2014.