Bluethumb Art Gallery facts for kids

Bluethumb is an online art marketplace from Australia. It's a website where you can buy and sell art. Two brothers, Edward and George Hartley, started Bluethumb in 2011. Today, over 6,500 Australian artists show their work on Bluethumb. This includes famous artists like Archibald Prize finalists Kim Leutwyler and Loribelle Spirovski. In 2015, Bluethumb even represented Australia at a big business competition called the Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen.

After the competition, Bluethumb received money from investors like Adam Schwab and Jeremy Same. This money helped them add more artworks to the site. It also helped them improve their technology and tell more people about Bluethumb. In 2017, they got more investment. They used this money to create a fair and clear platform. This platform helps Indigenous art centers sell their artists' work online.

Bluethumb Art Prize

The Bluethumb Art Prize started in 2016. Artists can enter for free, and they submit their art online. They can even change their artwork before the deadline. A cool thing is that the art is for sale during the whole competition. This prize became very popular quickly. In its first year, it had more entries than the famous Archibald Prize.

The winner of the 2016/2017 prize, which was $10,000, was Kirsten Sivyer. Her winning painting was a surrealist piece called Home Away From Home. The second-place winner was Jimmy Donegan. He is a famous Indigenous artist who won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2010. His painting was called The Pukara Rock Hole.

The Bluethumb Art Prize 18 launched in late 2017. It received 2,346 entries! This was twice as many as the first year. It became Australia's biggest new art prize. They also added four new awards, each worth $2,000. These were for:

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

The best artwork out of these four category winners received the main $10,000 prize. People could also vote online for their favorite artwork. This was called the People’s Choice Award.

Kim Hyunji, an artist from Melbourne, won the Works on Canvas award. She also won the main $10,000 Bluethumb Art Prize for her oil painting, Painless (Luke). She even won the People's Choice Award! Erin Nicholls won the Works on Paper Award for her piece 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 photo, A Shifting Stillness #4.

Bluethumb - Uncover Australian Art app

In November 2013, Bluethumb launched a mobile app. It's called the Bluethumb – Uncover Australian Art app. You can use it on iPhones and Android phones. This app was the first in Australia to let artists sell their work directly through a phone app. It even won the Best Shopping App award in the Australian Mobile & App Design Awards in 2014.

See also

• SALA Festival
• List of Art museums and galleries in Australia