Paint by numbers

THIS PAINTING by Brett Whiteley went to auction with an estimate of $400,00 to $500,000. How good would it be if you had bought it for, say, five or ten thousand a few years back? That's what Whiteleys were going for when I was a Fine Art Auctioneer in the late 70s. So who are the top 10 artists to collect now?

There is probably no more fun way to 'invest' your money than in art. You get to go to swanky openings and auctions, meet interesting people and hang beautiful things on your walls.

I've deliberately put inverted commas around 'invest.' Art can be a very good investment, but if you say to me, "I want to make money on art – what should I buy?" then you're going about it the wrong way.

Anne Phillips, senior specialist in art at auction house Bonhams and Goodman, agrees. She says that you should become as educated as possible in the field you wish to collect and then buy what you love.

The other perennial piece of advice is to buy the best you can afford.

Serious paintings are now usually priced over $20,000 but if you have substantially less than this, you can still collect art which will appreciate in value. Bonhams holds its Bay and East sale in Sydney where works of up to $15,000 can be purchased.

Anne says the collectables in these sales are usually works on paper, etchings, lithographs and the like of major artists such as Whiteley and Norman Lindsay (Lindsay's value is currently going up in leaps and bounds). And if you choose well, these do still appreciate in value over time.

You can also choose one of the traditionally cheaper fields to collect – like I have. I collect photography and have always bought the best I could afford. I bought an iconic 1960s Lewis Morley photograph of Christine Keeler for $1,500 in the 90s. I have just sold it overseas for $28,000.

A tidy profit, but the point of the story is that, while I knew its significance when I bought it, that's not why I purchased it. I bought it because I loved the photo and wanted to enjoy it on my wall for 10 years. And when I say I bought the best I could afford, I didn't just fork out because some dealer told me to – I also bought using a carefully acquired knowledge base.

Knowing the significance of the artist and that particular work in the artist's career is a big part of the trick. If you understand how significance is acquired, then you can go searching amongst emerging artists who have no auction record. You can either buy them straight from the dealer – or wait till their first works come up at auction. Auction is the arena of second and subsequent sales of contemporary pieces and, according to Anne, an artist with a good reputation whose work is now coming up at auction for the first time is invariably cheap.

How Picasso became great

Art is a funny thing. It gains significance and beauty because influential people say it is significant. A lot like fashion really. So most of the great art in the world today is valuable and revered because that artist gained a champion (like Matisse gained art collector Gertrude Stein in Paris of the 1920s), had a great dealer or was a great self-promoter (Picasso, who also enjoyed the attention of Gertrude, had a great dealer, and was a shameless self promoter, had all three).

Today, according to Anne, if you are looking at collecting an artist you would be looking for significance in these ways:

• They are represented by a major dealer
• They have had solo shows
• They are represented in public collections – state and national art galleries
• They win major prizes and get grants
• They get lots of media attention
• And even better they had a life cut short!

The cart horses of the art world

There is a lot of pretty, if unchallenging art which, although they will never reach the stratosphere of Whiteley or Australian impressionist Arthur Streeton, Anne says they consistently hold or increase in value and there is always a healthy market for them. Artists like David Boyd, Pro Hart, D'Arcy Doyle – whose colourful works hang well in living rooms.

It doesn't do it for me but Anne tells me not to be so snobby. "After all, what's wrong with buying something people are comfortable with, which you can always sell and it holds value or even goes up," she says. She calls these works the cart horses of the art world.

David Boyd who used to sell for $2,000 in the late 70s, now sells for $8,000.

Out of fashion, for now

Fashion being a big part of the art world means that the trend in the last few years for contemporary minimalist décor has dictated that modern art is in. Even the famous Sydney Paddington terraces have been gutted and made modern, according to Georgina Pemberton, deputy director and head of paintings for Sotheby's. Georgina says Brett Whiteley ticks all the boxes for collectability.

This interest has been accelerated by the advent of 'affordable art sales,' originally advertising works of up to $5000 in Sydney and Melbourne, which has brought a whole new audience to contemporary art appreciation.

This means that perfectly good 19th Century artists can languish. According to Georgina, the old masters are sleepy at the moment; traditional art is very good buying and even the all-time great Arthur Streeton is good buying at the moment (if you happen to have lots of dollars).

Until the décor pendulum fully swings (more elaborate design is on the way in), the picks according to the major auction houses will still be the moderns, and for serious collectors the moderns of the 30s up to the 60s, like Roland Wakelin and John Brack .

And you can take a look at geographical location to pick up bargains or sell at a premium.

In Perth, the isolation causes a regional market according to Peter McKenzie of McKenzie's Auctioneers, Valuers and Exhibitions. He says locals love topographical historical artworks relative to Perth or WA. These can fetch high prices – and aren't really collectable anywhere else.

"We have sold such artworks up to $97,000. (This was a John Campbell, View of Perth, watercolour).

Other artists, such as Robert Juniper, Kathleen O'Connor, William Boissevain and Guy Grey-Smith, all have a national following but sell at a premium in WA/Perth.

"Otherwise, WA tastes pretty much follow the rest of the nation, but prices paid and interest in the avant-garde is probably less."

How do you know you are getting the real deal?

Fakes are around and always have been. According to Anne, Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum was particularly faked. That's why many people prefer to buy Aboriginal art from the original community. The marketers of Aboriginal art are aware of the potential for fakes and generally now keep good records and the paintings have stock numbers.

The key here (for all art) is a thing called 'provenance': where did the art come from and who owned it? "It is no good just to say 'I have the certificate,'" says Anne. "It's who issued it."

It's so easy to become a collector now

Once you have decided that collecting art is for you, the internet has made it so much easier. The prime site is Australian Art Digest which lists all the sales, the auctioneers, the galleries and the prices paid for individual artists. You can look at the top 10 prices paid over the last three years for free, and they also have a one-off search service, so you can look up what a work went for in a prior sale, or you can subscribe for $140 a year and look up anything you like.

Galleries, dealers and auction houses are very free with their catalogues and invitations to openings, so don't be afraid to ask to be put on the mailing list – even if you are not yet in a position to buy. Receiving delicious catalogues in the post and attending champagne openings is a hobby in itself.

And to gain knowledge, you can read one of the art magazines available like Art and Australia or keep an eye on who is featuring in the art pages of your metropolitan newspaper.

I just regret not buying a Lucy Culliton. I knew Lucy when she was starting out and $700 would have bought me something very big. Now I'll be paying up to $12,000 for the privilege.

Top artists to collect now

Here are the lists of artists to watch, according to some of the top auction houses.

1. Sotheby's List
(nominated by Georgina Pemberton, deputy director and head of paintings)

Art under $20,000:

Noel McKenna
Bill Henson
Max Dupain
Elioth Gruner
Susan Norrie
Rosemary Laing
Nicholas Harding
Lucy Culliton
Amanda Marburg

Art over $20,000:

Bill Robinson
Brett Whiteley
Jeffrey Smart
Fred Williams
Arthur Streeton
Tom Roberts
JP Russell
Rick Amor
Peter Booth
Lloyd Rees
John Olsen

2. Joel Fine Art's List
(nominated by John Albrecht, head of paintings)

William Delafield- Cook
Clifton Pugh
Richard Larter
Roland Wakelin
Grace Cossington- Smith
Clement Meadmore
John Coburn
Sally Smart

3. Bonhams and Goodman's List
(nominated by Geoffrey Smith, national head of paintings)

Deceased artists over $10,000:
Eugene von Guerard
Arthur Streeton
Albert Tucker
Arthur Boyd
Sidney Nolan
Brett Whiteley
Fred Williams
Robert Klippel
Rosalie Gascoigne
Howard Arkley

Living artists under $10,000:

Stephen Benwell
Lorraine Connelly-Northey
Peter Cooley
Emily Floyd
David Jolly
Amanda Marburg
Noel McKenna
David Noonan
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
Lena Yarinkura

(Lynelle Johnson was a fine art auctioneer in the late 70s and early 80s for Pickles in Sydney and Bonhams in London. She was a presenter on ABC's For Love or Money before taking up journalism full time.)

Where to find out more

The best resource is the Australian Art Sales Digest which has over 300,000 works and over 11,000 artists from Australia and New Zealand listed.

The auction houses I spoke to are:

Bonhams and Goodman Sydney

Sotheby's International (you will need to register on this site)

Joel Fine Art Melbourne

McKenzie Gallery and Auctions Perth

Visit www.artsydney07.com.au. This site also lists art fairs in Melbourne and Brisbane for 2008.