My Affordable Art: Georgia Huestis

Pride of place in my kitchen is a screen print of a giant rock melon by Melbourne based artist, Alice Oehr. The print caught my eye at Affordable Art Fair Melbourne in 2019 when Alice exhibited in our Discover: Young Talent exhibition.  

Alice is a multi-talented artist and designer / illustrator whose distinct, colourful style incorporates a love of food, pattern, collage and drawing.

We host a Discover: Young Talent exhibition each year to feature five unrepresented artists, aged under 35 from across the state. 

I love that it gives emerging artists an opportunity to engage with art lovers and present their artwork to such an engaged audience. It’s also such a fabulous way for our audience to support artists as they are developing their style and building a career.

In fact we loved working with Alice so much that she will return to Affordable Art Fair Melbourne in August 2023 to run our Creative Hub drawing workshops.   

I adore the simplicity of the two colours and the effortless line work. The rock melon looks to be having a happy hug with the pink wrapping and it always makes me smile. The series was called ‘Freshly wrapped’ and highlighted the various plastic ‘accessories’ such as fruit stickers and wraps our fruit sellers add to their produce. I was very tempted by the fresh lime and mango, too.  

I have a number of limited edition prints that I’ve collected over the years. I found these an affordable way to begin my art collecting journey. I’m fascinated by colour, line and raw energy. Alice’s piece sits next to a really striking monochrome linocut by the late Jimmy Pike from Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London. Another favourite of mine is a large scale James Mulcahy watercolour landscape I purchased from another Discover exhibition at Affordable Art Fair Melbourne. James’ work has really come on and I feel lucky to have snapped up a painting of his so early in his career.  

I also own a still life with a cactus and jar of pencils by Liam O’Neil purchased in Melbourne in 2022 and a family portrait I commissioned from Maya Barnstone who is a Sydney based artist we featured in our Discover: Young Talent exhibition in Sydney 2022.

My advice for anyone looking to buy their first artwork would be to buy what you love and chat to our friendly gallerists. Does it make you smile? If so, and if you can afford to add it to your collection, go for it! If it feels a little out of reach, chat to our galleries about the possibility of paying in instalments. 

With so many galleries and artworks under the one roof – it couldn’t be easier.

Affordable Art Fair Melbourne takes place from 31 August – 3 September 2023 at the Royal Exhibition Building.