August 24, 2026 • 48 mins
Georgia Huestis has seen both ends of the art world, from brokering high-value sales at auction houses and galleries in London and New York, to now running the Affordable Art Fair across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, where original works start from just $100.
In this episode of The Edit, Georgia chats to Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock about growing up surrounded by art and fashion, how to actually choose and buy art you'll love, and her simple rule for hanging it well.
Plus, Georgia takes us inside her Melbourne home; a cream brick house she describes as "not her style... yet", peeling back thick carpet, pulling off wallpaper and raising three young daughters in a house she says the art does all the heavy lifting for.
Sending thanks to our partners at Kaboodle Kitchen.
Explore kitchen and laundry inspiration at kaboodle.com.au
This episode covers:
- Growing up surrounded by art, with two grandmothers in fashion design
- Her early career at an auction house, and years running galleries in London and New York
- Launching the Affordable Art Fair in Australia
- What to expect at an art fair if you've never been
- How to actually choose and buy art you'll love
- Framing tips: float mounting, box frames and mismatched pairs
- How much you should really spend on art
- Inside her Melbourne home, and how art "does the heavy lifting"
- The biggest art-hanging mistake she sees in Australian homes
- Navigating art-buying disagreements as a couple
- What makes a home beautiful
You can find Georgia on Instagram here.
Check out the Affordable Art Fair here.
🎧 Listen to The Edit and follow on Apple Podcasts
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👀 Watch and subscribe to The Edit on Home Beautiful's YouTube
Credits:
Host: Elle Lovelock
Guest: Georgia Huestis
Edited by: Leah Porges
Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain
With thanks to our wonderful Home Beautiful team.
The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with Kerboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We talk a lot about sport, we talk a lot
about other things, but to have four days of culture
where artists are celebrating.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
A lot of the artists say, like, this is our
art party for the year.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How much do you think people should spend on art?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How much have you got what they're comfortable with? I
think you can buy some really beautiful art and it
doesn't need to break the back. I think you can
start small. Once you sort of start, you get the bug.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm Ol Loveluck, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today I'm chatting with
Georgia Hustace, who is the director of the Affordable Art
Fair here in Australia. We catch up at least a
couple of times a year when we host a breakfast
at the fair together. But today we're swapping roles and
(01:11):
it's might turn to ask the questions from brokering high
value purchases in London and New York to discovering emerging
artists back home. Georgia has experienced both ends of the
art world, and what I love is she now makes
art attainable for everyone, regardless of budget, knowledge, or style.
(01:32):
The advice she shares in this conversation will give you
the confidence to find art you absolutely love and for
know how to display it. Georgia, Welcome to the edit.
We have been having such a giggle already. I think
it's going to be one of those chats.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, I'm very excited. I've been looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
This one, and normally the roles are reversed. So usually
when we are together at the Affordable Art Fair, you're
the one interviewing me exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I'm used to being on the other side, So it's
your turn now, but I'd still love to ask a
few questions as well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Good good, I love questions. Yeah. Fashion, I guess you
could say it's in your blood.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Both of my grandmothers were fashion designers, so I did
grow up from an early age just surrounded by that
sort of conversation, and my dress up cupboard was all
dresses from like the Melbourne cup fashions on the field really,
so one of my grandmother's she was from New York.
She was a shoe designer, and she came across to
(02:33):
Australia and I don't think she found it that exciting,
so it was sort of her job to make it exciting.
And I've got And then my dad says, oh, you know,
you're lucky. Your life is not like he was mixing
drinks when he was ten, you know, and he was
hosting cocktail parties. And my grandma was quite a character.
But then my other grandma, she was the head designer
(02:55):
for Kazer. Oh yeah, so lingerie. And I think and
that was a brand for me growing up. It was
the sort of the Brazilian underwear. And yes, that was
not what I was designing in my day. She had
more respectable sort of silk night dresses. But I think
they got on very well. And that was just a
really nice I mean, a special childhood growing up with
(03:17):
absolutely creative women in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Especial parents, like and what was your childhood home like?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh? Like artistic chaos with piles of things. I think
my mum was a prep and art teacher, so every
day after school was just wads of paper. Yeah, the
right black pen that didn't run. And then like four
or five jars of ink, different colors, so you do
your drawing in pencil. When it was deemed good enough,
(03:45):
you could do the outline and then we would just
be painting. And then every artwork you did went up
on the wall. And so people would come to our
house and they'd say, can we go into the craft room?
And I was like, oh, I thought they might play
with me. But my mum would run these sort of
like workshops in the home, and I think I try
(04:06):
and do that now with our children. Has put their
artwork up on the wall because you feel quite proud
when you are reminded of moments when they're up on
the wall. But it was the floor to ceiling and
very creative. And then dad's an accountant, so he was
sort of, you know, is quite measured. And I think
that's why I love the art fair because I'm running
an art fair, I'm working with artists, I'm being creative
(04:27):
and that's really my great passion. But then I love
the commercial reality of helping others be successful. So yeah,
that little that balance.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So you were surrounded by your own art and other art,
yeah growing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Up, Yeah, I think so Mum paints a lot so
it would always be you know, one more where she'd be,
you know, doing her art, swapping it in and a
lot of moving around of art.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I think, yes, Do you think that shaped what you
do now?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh? Absolutely. I always knew it had to be visual
and that's what excites me, and it was. Yeah. I
always had like those big black kind of art folios
and everywhere I went, you know, collecting postcards. And it
wasn't you know, life wasn't digital, so you couldn't screenshot
it or gather it. So it's always that sort of
pasting and gathering and memories and.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Books and do you still have any of those?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I do, and they felt better at the time, but
you know, it is nice when you look back on
them and you're like, oh, I really remember that time,
like that all that exhibition. And when I was in
London recently, I went to the National Gallery and there
was this postcard that I'd gathered years and years ago,
and I saw the painting of it and it was
just this really special moment because I'd held that postcard
for so long, but I just bought it in the
(05:42):
museum gift shop. I'd never actually seen the painting, but
I loved the postcard enough to buy it, so then
to see the real painting maybe you know, ten years later,
it's like, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That's something I love about the way you think and
the way you work. Is you really bridge the high
end or even the priceless art in some cases with
art that is well, I mean affordableable, yeah, and within
reach exactly made by the hand of an artist who an.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Artist start everywhere. Yeah, every work has its own charm.
And who knows where that artwork will live or go?
And I think it's just saying it. Two days ago,
I found an artwork on Marketplace and I'm a real treasure,
like I'm an rawler, and I saw this work and
I thought, oh, reminds me of a work that my
grandma had in her kitchen. And I called up mom.
(06:31):
I said, Mum, where did that work go? And she said, oh,
I don't know. And so but next thing, you know what,
I was out there at this man's house and his
apartment and he was telling me about the you know,
it's still in its original frame, but it was this
ceramic hand glazed work by an artist who was born
in the thirties, and that was I don't even know
where I've gone with that story, but just sort of
(06:54):
trawling for art. I don't even know what was the question.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That you.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's what's say, you know, work being affordable. And then
I looked up this work and I thought, oh gosh,
if I'd gone and bought that atlant a job, I
would have paid every thousand dollars. And so it's that
I haven't bought it for the value of it, and
I've kind of loved it. I've turned it around and
I've thought, oh wow, that this artist has been appreciated
(07:21):
by many others. But I've bought it because it reminds
me of my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
That's such a wonderful thing about shopping through marketplace or
secondhand shops, and when you don't know the provenance of
a project and deliberating.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It is, and you've bought it just because you love it.
And I think you know many of the artists at affairs,
you know they've started somewhere. And I was thinking to myself, well,
if you like, I think scouting out these these artworks.
So sometimes they lose these stories, but it can give
an artwork a new life very easily. And I know
(07:58):
I'm going to I know it's in the original frame,
but it's in tatters and it's a very dark frame,
and I know I'm going to reframe it, and.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I was going to ask about that, how do you
feel about reframing.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I have some works that I would never reframe because
I think the frame really suits and it's like it's
of the period and I can make it work in
my home. This work, I know, it's just the frames
not much longer for this world, you know, and the
back of it, the papers all kind of motteled, and
it's it's not secure, you know, And I've already hung
(08:30):
it in my house, but it's above the dog bed,
and then I thought what if it fell on the
dog So I think it needs it needs a new life.
But then also I've got some you know, older style
paintings from you know, family members that I've that were
in the sort of gold frames that were probably just
from the shop, and so I've put them in like
a deep white box frame and suddenly they look really fresh,
(08:52):
but they look more important because they've got this depth
to them, and they're actually just like on a little
canvas board that you can get at any art shop.
If you give it a bit of depth that looks,
and you can do that with kids' works as well.
You just give them like a canvas board, give it
a frame and how special like, and then you keep
it forever.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That is so good. So you need what do you need?
You need a canvas sport? Can you put the art
on the canvas board?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, like you just paint. I mean my grandmother used
to paint on them in her nursing home. You know,
it's like those just flat boards that you can probably
buy in a pack of six or something, and then
not all of them are going to be a masterpiece.
So choose the one that you like and then you
can get it framed or you can be doing it
in those the pre framed canvases as well, which are
more available now. I think art supplies it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And then a box frame.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I like a box frame, like kind of like what's
behind you? Just give me a bit of depth? Oh okay, yeah, yeah,
I like that. I mean, I think we see a
lot of pine frames at the moment, but I sometimes
like I liked the white frame. I think it made
it feel fresh.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Take me back to the earlier years of your career.
What's of work did you do well?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I started out at Deutsche and Hackett so an auction house.
So I was managing the gallery there in Melbourne, but
i'd come up to Sydney and then I was phone
bidding and I was putting enormous sales through on credit
cards and researching and writing essays. So I think it
tied in with my art history degree, which I know.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You've done in yeah degree.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, So I loved that. That felt like the romance
of you know, working in a big arts organization and yeah,
very precious artwork. And I loved that because people would
bring in the artworks that they were ready to sell
or have valued, but they would bring in a story
and they would tell you about that it had come
through their family and or they didn't know much about it.
(10:43):
And sometimes you'd say, unfortunately it's a print or you know,
you'd get or sometimes you'd say, wow, that's very valuable.
Antiques broad show just on commercial road like it was,
it was really special and it was a very human
and interaction and because you know, you'd have people coming
(11:03):
in who were buying and selling as a profession, but
you'd have a lot of regular people coming in who'd
inherited something. And it had a story and then yeah,
you'd need time to talk about those stories, for them
to perhaps part with those works or give them the
next chapter. Because I think artworks have a life beyond
the first owner. It's about connection. Yeah, and I think,
(11:26):
And so you asked me what I was. So I
started off at the Action House abound in terms of connection.
So I went from quite a commercial finance like it was,
you know, high value paintings that I was sort of
you know, sitting with and loving and like Chris Deutsche
has the most beautiful art library and it would be
my job to make sure it was all in the
(11:46):
right order, and like that was charming. Like I adored it,
and I learned so much. And then I ended up
moving to London and working for a gallery there and
stayed there a long time, and we had gallery in
New York as well, so I was traveling between the
two cities running there were four galleries, but we did
(12:07):
art fairs all year round, and so I was just
traveling to different art fairs and meeting different people around
the world and seeing how different cities and different communities
would resonate with a particular artists work. And so that
is where my love of artfairs sort of developed, and
I just loved the buzz of an utfair but chatting
to so many people in one.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Day because the affordable outfair where you are? Now, when
did you get.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
We launched in Melbourne in twenty nineteen. Okay so, and
then COVID happened and then we got back on the track.
But twenty nineteen was beautiful, so Royal exhibition building. I
think I've never worked so hard in my life. I
was also pregnant with my first child, but I had
like two projects to deliver. It was great. And then
so yeah six years, my daughter's six so that one
(12:56):
kind of counter. And then we launched in Sydney and
now we're in Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Because you're right, the buzz is intense. How many people
go through.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So in Sydney and Melbourn we have about eighteen thousand
people through and then Brisbane nearly fifteen. So yeah, it's
a lot of eyes in front of art.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What I love most about it is it makes buying
art or even just going to look at art feel
less intimidating. And that's what struck me the first time
I went. I felt like I could go around and
look at whatever I wanted, and no one was going
to look down on me or judge me or think
(13:38):
why you're here you can't afford this.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I think our goal is to have it feel really welcoming.
And our galleries and our artists they're a huge part
in that. Like they're very chatty, and they're not in
their studios and they're not in their galleries. We have
a lot of regional galleries kind of coming in and
it's this platform where for four days you can sort
of show your best work and receive feed back and
(14:01):
chat to people and talk to people about art. I
think it's like we.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Talk a lot about sport, we talk a lot about
other things, but to have four days of culture where
artists are celebrating a lot of the artists say like,
this is our art party for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
For the city. Because now a lot of our artists
and galleries will travel definitely to celebrate art, like from
nine to nine every day.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And you're right about the cities. What I notice is
people get dressed up to go to these fairs, and
each city has its own slook and style.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I find Brisbane particularly hard because I'm like, oh, what
do I wear in Brisbane? But now I know because
our Brisbane audience get really dressed up.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They do.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
There's this real sense of occasion and it's really lovely
and there's bright colors. Everyone in Brisbane looks beautiful, like
it is a go just gorgeous fair. And then Melbourne
it's different altogether. You know, there's beautiful love you Melbourne, Yes, yes,
we love I love Melbourne. I love it. I can
(15:10):
wear my coats all week long. And then I think
the rest of the team like, how do you have
so many coats? I live in Melbourne. But I think
it's more layering, and you know, the opening night you
kind of go out for dinner and Truth Street after
and it's that sort of fun night out, but it's
wintery and it's cold, and the artworks always slightly it's
(15:31):
a bit moodier. It's got a different feel to it.
And then Sydney re launching. We moved last year to
Carriageworks and gosh, that was fun. I mean we had
the markets Carriageworks on the weekend, the farmers' markets and
I think, you know, you had people in the active wear,
but you had people dressed to the nines and it
was just and it was a very warm, warm, fair.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
When it comes to the home, there are so many
decisions to be made every day here at the Edit,
we want to make those choices that little bit easier,
sharing advice from our guests and experts like Kaboodle Kitchen,
who I'm happy to say have helped me find solutions
for our listener dilemma this episode, today we have a
DM from Jane from Narrabeen. She says, I'm renovating my
(16:19):
kitchen and love the look of timber cupboards, but I
have no idea what will work in my home. I
want a modern, classic look with marble style porcelain worktops
and polished nickel handles and taps. Where do I even
start with the cupboards? Jane, you are not alone in
this overwhelm. I love that you have your bench tops
(16:41):
and hardware sorted. You can use these choices to guide
which timber looks you choose, and when it comes to timber,
the best thing to do is think in terms of colors.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have you ever.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Noticed how some timbers look cool and others look warm? Well,
from that point you'll start to notice each timber has
its own color undertone that it could be red, blue, yellow, black,
white gray. So think about what colors you love to
decorate with elsewhere in your home. If you prefer cool blues,
(17:18):
go for something with a gray or silver finish. If
you like a sunnier color palette, try a honeyed or
classic oak. It can be difficult to imagine what a
finish will look like, so I always recommend people get swatches,
not just so they can see the color in real life,
(17:39):
but so they can see how it will look in
the space they're renovating. A really good place to start
is kitchen retailers like Kaboodle Kitchen, so you can jump
online and browser finishes and then order swatches, which can
be delivered to your home, or head into your local
Bunnings because there they'll have swatches in the Kaboodle kitchen section. Now,
(18:01):
when you get home, leave the swatches in the room
you're renovating and see what they look like at different
lights and different times of day. It is actually amazing
how a color can completely change when it's in situ. Now,
also place the swatches next to your other materials, the
bench top and the hardware. Just play around see which
(18:23):
combinations you like best. Speaking of which, one of my
favorite looks with white marble and polish nickel is darker
timber cabinetree. My choice is the Kaboodle swatch in truffle
oak for that real Nancy Mayer's feel. I love the
dark contrast, but if you prefer a lighter look, hazel
(18:44):
nut v is a gorgeous, cool neutral tone that would
look amazing with your palette. Then again, pretty much any
oak will also work. So there's Cajun oak oak latte look.
I could go on, but the best thing to do
is to just watch and play. Explore kitchen and laundry
inspiration at kaboodle dot com dot au. What can people
(19:10):
expect if they've never been to an art fair before?
To show up to the affordable art fair? Do you
pay to get in? Do you have a set time limit?
Can you spend the whole day?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I think people say, oh, what is an art fair?
It's like an art fair. We build white walls.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
The galleries can paint them a color if they like
to sort of personalize their space. But each gallery will
have their own booth.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
We encourage them to make that booth their own and
so create a mood, create a feeling, show artwork that
you're proud of. That's sort of distinctly you as a visitor.
You can buy a ticket to come in where they're
for four days. You might buy a four day pass,
but or a one day pass. But I think if
you come back and you're wanting to come back and
(19:57):
buy something, we'll always let you back in. That's good
to know. I think it's like, you know, if you've
shown that you're interested, and then the galleries will say,
we'll come back and see me the next day. Because
some people are able to make that immediate decision. I
know I want it, I'll buy it now. Then other
people will say I just need to sleep on it.
And often if you've waken up after sleeping on it
(20:18):
and you're still thinking about it, you're running back that
next morning before someone else gets it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Definitely, let's get into that a little bit more. How
do you encourage people or advise people to buy art?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Say, just go with your gut, so like, you're not
buying artwork for me, you're buying artwork for yourself, and
you have to connect with it and people. Obviously I'm
asked this a lot, like what should I buy? I'm like,
I can't tell you what to buy. I'll say, can
you show me what you like? You know, do you
have photos on your phone? Or sometimes I'll just say that,
(20:50):
like I did this with my sister last year. Please
just walk around with your phone, take photos of everything
that you love and come back to me and then like,
I really interesting I'm looking. I'm like, wow, you can
really see your style? Oh do I have a style?
You absolutely have a style, because yeah, by just like
seeing through someone else's eyes what they're attracted to, it
(21:12):
becomes quite clear. And I've you know, my sister's taste
is quite quirky. She lots of things of animals, but
she loves ceramics. And so then we had a nice
walk around and kind of she could meet the artists
or become confident chatting to people about the work and
knowing what questions to ask, which might be can you
tell me about the work? Yeah, like you can just
(21:32):
ask with that, and then it's just a conversation starter,
and then the gallerius or the artists will start opening
up and telling you more. And then often there's just
something in there that hooks you in and you're like, oh,
well that got me there, and now I feel like
I know a bit more about it. Yeah, because if
someone you've got something in your home and someone says.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Oh, where did you get that?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
There's often a story and it's nice to sort of
know a little bit about the work that you agree.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Sometimes when I've been with you at the fair pace,
people will come and ask questions and show your photo
of a room and say, I've got this wall and
I need to buy artwork for this wall.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
How do we acate that? And it happens, like you've
seen it happen. It happens all the time, and it's
sort of there's things like there's obviously scale, you know,
you need the wall to have well the artworks have
enough presence, yes, And there's wallpower.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You can have a small work that has big wallpower. Yeah,
you can have a big work that's perhaps a bit
flat and not singing. Yeah. So a lot of our
galleries are really good at just advising that. So I say,
you know, show them a photo. They might say, do
you think you need slightly bigger? Or let me see
what else I've got in my stock room, or yeah,
maybe I'll maybe a commission if it's a particular space
(22:47):
that you're looking that feels so exact to you that
then often I just say, just go around to find
things that you love, and you will find that piece
for that couch. Don't rush into buying something just for
the sake of it, because you will find that peace.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, it's a big jigsaw. You'll find the corners eventually
for the jigsaw.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like, oh, definitely, speaking of corners. Back to framing. I
love that you can buy the artwork you love, yes,
but then the framing is what can make it work
in a space.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah. I think people can be a bit scared about framing.
It so fun. I think if you find the right
framer and you or even if you just have an
example of something and you sort of take it in,
but you can houser work quite differently. I always frame
for the artwork itself because I feel like they're like
my friends. I want to frame them in the right book. Yeah,
(23:37):
I don't want to frame them for my house in
a way, and then eventually they find their grouping.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And I don't mind mismatched frames. I like that me too.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, but you can change the scale, you can change
the shaper.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, Like I love float, I love works on paper.
I have a lot of sort of lino cuts, and
I I love float mounting them so that they're sitting
a bit further from the mount board than giving it
a nice border, playing around with perhaps the color of
the mount board, and then having a simple frame with
a fill it at the side so it gives a
bit of a debt so it doesn't look like a
(24:14):
poster like that. Yeah, so that can do wonders for anything. Yeah, yeah,
like you can make that artwork feel more special.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
How much do you think people should spend on art?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Oh? How much have you got what they're comfortable with?
I think you can buy some really beautiful art and
it doesn't need to break the bank. I think you
can start small. Once you sort of start, you get
the bug and you gradually, like that number that you're
comfortable with seems to grow, or you can sort of
like I'm on a current mission to buy bigger work,
(24:49):
and so my husband and I like maybe less Like
most fares, I'll come home with something small in most ofircase,
and this time it's like, so this year, I'm like,
I'd like to buy to something big at the end
of the year. Yes, But in terms of what people spend.
I think no one ever regrets buying an artwork now
I certainly haven't, so I think you live with it
every day.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, cost per where, cost cost per cost per site
and love cost per That sounds of it because if
you pick them up for is it from one hundred.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Dollars from one hundred dollars for original? Yeah, And I
think that's the thing, Like the works are all original,
they're all by the hand of an artist. The money
is sort of like it. It's not a poster, it's
not mass produced. If it's a print, it's an addition
size that's reasonable and unique. Yes, so I think, And
you're supporting a living artist. So all of our artists
(25:42):
at the fair are living, which seems like a funny
thing to say, but it's like they're the ones that
need the money.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And historically some artists have only become popular after they've
died exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So nowhere we have artists that are fair who are
living and very popular and gaining popularity as well as
they show across three different cities, and they build up
their sort of their body of work, and perhaps they
can sustain themselves by showing it three and then moving
into becoming full time artists and then sort of selling
(26:16):
their works, but then producing works quietly in the studio
in between.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, what should an artist do if they want to
become part of the fair?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Just send us an email all the time. Okay. Yeah,
So we have a beautiful gallery relations manager, Joe. Yes,
so she's on the other end of the email, and
then we have lots of chats and emails. We have
sort of hanging guides and ideas on how to apply
for the fair. And it's quite real. Okay, we're a
small team.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
How that feels, Yes, exactly. I'd like to go to
your place.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Oh gosh, would you?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, and you'd be welcome to You have said that
your house, which you own, we do. It's not your
style at all.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It will be one day.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So what style is it?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Why did you buy it? Well, for what it will be,
I think like I love it and I love the
inside of it. When we bought it. It's sort of
the cream brick house on a street of Victorian houses.
So our house has been given a very special treatment.
So I think, like the next door, there are a
few people in our streets sort of restoring their homes
(27:30):
to former glory, but ours was particularly embellished with crean
brick Corinthian columns really thick her out. So we've gradually
done the garden on like ourselves, and I've added in
like a winding sort of slate bluestone kind of replica
bluestone path which is curved. But when we bought it,
(27:52):
it was like a straight path lined with gladiola of
an era and like a really thick like when we
went to pull the fence out, it was like really
very deep. Just he was a boiler maker, like a beautiful,
beautiful Greek family, and it was a family home in
the like in the family for years. Our side fence
(28:14):
was made of railway sleepers with sort of fence that
was almost driftwood by the time that we got it.
So there was a lot of love put into our house.
But say all of the ceilings were lowered and put
with sort of decorative geometric ceiling plasters and a lot
of amber glass. Everything's a little bit wonky, but it's
(28:34):
a beautiful street and beautiful neighbors, and we have a
really beautiful garden with pomegranates and lemons and figs. So
like I love I love for the home that it
has been and it has a really good feeling. Yeah,
it's just like I have this dream of restoring it
to perhaps match the other houses in the streets.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So was it originally Victorian?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Oh okay, do you know what beneath?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Not a lot? Yeah, So I think we bought the
house and then I had our first daughter that week
and to sort of had the thickest carpet like brown
and yellow, dark brown and yellow swirls, and we got
the keys. We dropped the keys. We could not find
for age just because the carpet was just so thick
(29:24):
and the pattern was so dense, and I was like, oh,
where are they? And the whole house was in this carpet,
so and then the drapes are really thick. And anyway,
we found the keys, and then we pulled up the carpet.
I think we thought it was going to be like
the most beautiful flooring underneath. Yeah, probably isn't the most
beautiful flooring underneath. So we sort of sanded it all
back and the original ceilings aren't there. But do you
(29:47):
know what we just we still we still love it.
It's just a bit wonky and we've got I'm always
thinking about what we're going to do. We have done
what we can do. You know, I've painted all the walls,
We've pulled all the wall paper off, We've added we
added in a dishwasher.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
You are leaving a dream.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The kitchen was actually like our kitchen was more of
a show kitchen. And then she had a separate laundry
at the back with a cast iron, you know, the green,
old kind of cast iron. But then we realized like
the exhaust of it went straight into the wall, so
it was just a bit. But we've made it, made
(30:28):
it ours for now, but we will. We sort of
lots of chats about what it will be.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
How does art figure in your home?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Art does all the hard work. So I think people
come over and they're like, oh, this makes sense. I
thought it would, like this is you and because like
I said, like they are all my old friends, you know,
they're all like I've traveled and brought them with me
and they all have a special sort of story to them,
(30:57):
so I feel good being around them. But I think
artwork possibly makes sense to people that know me. It's
like a little bit quirky and the color palette is me.
I think I'm in all white today, but that's just
because I'm not with my children. So this feels like
a bit of a power move to like not be
wearing pastal color. Normally I'm in color, but I thought
(31:18):
I'll just keep it clean today. But yeah, I think
the artworks has a similar sort of pastal kind of
color palette.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Well, I feel like this is a good point to
find out about your mystery draw item. Okay, so what
have you brought in today? It's something from your bit
of a ruffle.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I mean, there's going to be the great unveiling, but
I think it's it's not from my drawer, but it
moves around all the time. Okay, just step from our
art fair last year.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
For anyone who's listening and can't see, we have the
bubble wrap going and that's what you can hear.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I've got bubble wrap because we love wrapping up works
are fair. And I got the tissue paper because it's
actually an oil. It's got a bit of oil pastor.
This is an artwork. It's called fun Sun and it
just made me feel really happy.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
And I bought it from Claudio Kirak, who was an
artist in action at our last year's fait. I did
not go to that fair planning to buy a wooden
cutout of a sun. And I was just chatting to him,
and I was chatting to him and I was having
the best conversation. I looked up and I saw it
on the wall and I just said, I please have
(32:36):
that one. And it was, you know, two hundred dollars,
and I thought, oh, just put it in one of
the kid's rooms. It hasn't made it to the kid's
rooms yet because I've had it in the kitchen, I've
had it. It just kind of goes anywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It is so happy.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, it's just a reminder, like the sun shines every day,
like Tomorrow's a new day. Smile. I think instead of
a clock in our kitchen, we just have the sun.
How would you describe this, I would say it's a
very happy, happy work. So it's like a it's a
cutout wooden. It's a wooden. It's not a sun with
(33:13):
jagged edges. It's like a wavy piece of wood that
he's painted a son on with big oil pastor smile,
and he works quite rapidly and fast, and it just
has that expression of pure joy and it's not taking
itself too seriously.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, and not that you should touch art.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I mean, I mean this has come with me from
Sydney Melbourne and I brought it back, so it's trail
and he's come from Queensland. So but I think it's
a mark in time. For me. It was like, oh
remember that great chat that we had and yeah, I
just it just made me feel happy. It was a
bit of a and I think the next work I'd
like to buy was be, you know, a traditional oil painting.
(33:51):
So there's no.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Exactly it was just no rhyme or reasons, just because
you love it.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, a marker of time.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's so beautiful. He lets this guy up, we.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Can put him back in the bag, put him away. Yeah.
So I mean, I've got lots of different items in drawers,
but I think I think artwork kind of moving around
and finding new homes is probably this was the story.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Well, let's go back to your place. I want to
ask some questions around your house rules. So this is
we'll get to know you a little bit. Answer as
best you can. Yeah, shoes on or off?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We are are shoes on house. But I would love
to be a shoes off house. I think I grew
up with shoes on and I didn't know that there
was an option, And now I'm like, oh, I'd love
to be one of those houses. It seems way cleaner.
But I've got two labradors and so my house I'm
vacuuming a lot anyway. Yeah, and our floor leads a
(34:51):
bit to be desired, So I think footwear is good
in our house.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
How about being in Melbourne it can get quite cool.
Blankets or doners. Do you call it a douner or
a douvet or.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I think I used to call it a douvet, but
now I'm back in Austraya, we call it douna. But
I have it all like I have, you know, douner blankets.
I'm always freezing and I've actually just invested in an
electric blanket, which makes me seem very old, but it's
been life changing. But yeah, blankets everywhere. I love. I
(35:25):
love blankets. My mum crochets like these amazing little tiny,
tiny squares and the girls will have these blankets on
the end of their bed and she quilts, so we've
got Liberty quilts on the girl's beds. But I love
just layers and warmth and our house is freezing.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So are you a candle?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yes? Do you know? My husband's very into candles. That's
like a bit of a he's a bit of a pyro,
you know, he loves.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Like is he into candles?
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I don't know, Like I'm like, that's a good candle.
Can you just like doesn't need to go all day?
But when we met, the first gift he gave me
was this beautiful Earl of East London candles. So we
were sort of like living there and I think that
brand had just sort of started out, and they're like
these brown glass jars and I love a woody like
woody scent.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Do you like them for special occasions or when people
come over?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I think no more for us? And we went if
the house feels like it just needs a bit of
a bit of like you know, open the windows, kind
of put the candle on like a reset?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah? How often do you reset your home?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Oh? Look, I've got three kids, so non stop. But
I look, I'm not excelling at it, but I'm trying hard.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Are you a tidy person or are you piles of stuff?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'm a piles girl. I wish I wasn't. But I
can't pretend I'm not. No, I just collect too many things,
and I'm always, you know, trying and condensing, but it's
never ending. It's not my vibe.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Tell me something in your home that is always fresh flowers?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Oh what do you choose? I will go to the
garden first. Yep. So often it might be fresh mint.
That's kind of like if I've got that that sort
of grows like wildfire and it sort of smells good.
I yeah, just kind of what I can find in
there over summer. I grow dahlia's.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Have you always been a gardener.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I've always loved flowers. It's always been probably what I
was collecting postcards of. And we talk about a lot.
But since sort of inheriting this beautiful garden, I've felt
this sort of not like this yearning to look after it.
And our kids spend a lot of time in the garden,
and we've recently got monkey bars, so I sort out there, Yeah,
(37:56):
there are a lot and we have this pommy on
a tree and that like there are just special times
throughout the year where like the girls are out there
kind of opening up the pomegranites and the birds are
out there and yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Very lucky with that scene in mind. What does your
home sound like?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Quite noisy? I think our neighbors said, we always know
when when you're home. I think it's like, yeah, for
three little girls and they are chat chat chatting away,
and often the sound is like the pram. They're toy
pram going up and up and down in the you
know that's sort of yes, yir full of bunnies, or
(38:39):
like help me, I'm stuck on the monkey bars or
you know, so children, I would say.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
How old are they?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
They are six four and one two next week? Gorgeous. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Do they have any artistic traits coming through?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I think so. They all love sort of drawing we've
always got. There's always making happening, and I think I'm
just trying to allow the magic to happen and not
worry about the mess for now, because there will be
times where my coffee table books can be where I
left them. So yeah, there is that creativity. And I
think I took what my middle daughter Emmy to the
(39:18):
dentist yesterday and she said she gave the dentisty turned
up and she said, here's some lavender for you, and
I hadn't even known that she picked it, but I thought,
oh wow, she knows even the names of the flowers,
so I think that's sort of part of perhaps what
they've been exposed to.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And it's hospitable.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, yeah, normally we were scared of the dentist, but
it was good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
After the break, Georgia shares how to solve the greatest
art crime she sees in Australian homes. Back to art,
Is there an art crime that you see in Australian
homes that you wish people wouldn't do?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I don't. I don't think it's like an Australian thing.
I think sometimes like I'm just aware of how people
hanging works. So sometimes I'm like, oh wow, that's really
low or that's extremely high. And then sometimes I will
hang things slightly higher because I'm quite tall. So like
in a gallery you might hang things with a midpoint
(40:20):
of one hundred and fifty centimeters or one hundred and
fifty five, and I like hanging one hundred and sixty
because my eyes are a bit taller. So it's exactly yeah,
kind of like where you're going to be looking at,
enjoying the art, Where where it's like at your mid
mid level.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Okay, so you want around your eye height to be
going to the center of the art.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Pretty much, so you're sort of it's sort of, yeah,
an easy viewing height for you can obviously play around
with things and create drama and moments and that that's
sort of like a midpoint of one working. You can
go up from there and down from there. I had
an art installer I was working with who came back
with this incredible story that he just installed artwork in
(41:04):
a gentleman's home who was in a wheelchair, and he
hung all of his works at a height that he
could view from his care and I just thought, like,
that is his home, That's how it should be. So
I love that. So it's like you're hanging for you.
But sometimes I see some wild things so high it's
(41:26):
like just a little bit upward. But I'm not judging,
you know, like I just I just think fit of
or like you know, sometimes you'll think that you know,
you hang everything with the bottom line the same, or
that like I like to hang things with the midpoint
the same.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
That is such good advice because a lot of us
don't know, and you do see artworks that are hung
exactly that way, either the bottom line yeah, level or
the top yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I can see why like that it does make sense.
I don't think to me it makes sense more just
to have them yeah in the middle.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Have you ever witness or experienced any exchanges with couples
where you've had to step in or step away?
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yeah, definitely when you just I think I'm just going
to leave it to you, you know, like I'm not
pushing anyone into buying work, and sometimes one person will
really want that that work. And no. Actually friend friend
of mine in Brisbane, they're yeah, a couple. They were coming.
It was their first out buying experience, and like he
(42:29):
has such a like a distinct style. And then I've
only just met her and I was thinking, gosh, he's
got a specific style. Anyway, came back, he'd bought the
work and she was thinking, oh, like, well, I'm just
going to go buy one too. They both they both
just went and bought separate works. They'll find places in
the homes. But I think it was just this side. Well,
if you're going to buy one, I think I'll buy one.
(42:51):
So that's fair.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, how do you back away or excuse yourself. If
an exchange is getting a little heated.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Just gently, I think, yeah, I don't need to be
part of that. No, No, I think normally, like on
the whole, it's normally just such an excited, exciting time
and people will say like, oh, how do I like
I've had like how do I do it? Well, just
go you can go up and ask them if it's available,
can I buy it? And they'll be thrilled. But it
is that like sometimes you've committed in your mind, you
(43:21):
know that you want that artwork, but what's the next step? Well,
the next step is it's true like to just go
and chat to the artist or the gallery owner and say,
you know, is that available? I'd actually like to buy it,
and they'll just say sure, like it's quite It's it's
not harsh, but it's just almost voicing out loud that
you're ready or asking the galleries I'm thinking about buying it, like,
(43:44):
and then they'll probably guide you through the process or
talk to you about the artist or the technique and
you might say, oh, wow, I loved that artwork without
even knowing all of the backstory and how it was made,
and I didn't know the depth to the storytelling and
you've and then you're definitely buying it.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Then our price is always displayed.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yes, yes, So every price is on a label with
the medium and the artist's name, and so you can
feel comfortable that it is in your price range, or
that you might take a photo and think about it
or think about that it might be something that you
buy in the future. But it can be about just
getting your eye in and figuring out what prices original
(44:26):
artwork sells at because the art needs to take into
account that the artist has spend their time making it,
they've got the materials, they've got years of training, and
so it's probably it is a great thing being able
to see the prices because sometimes you think, oh, I'm
always attracted to the works that are that price, but
then you find it work and you think, actually, I
(44:48):
know that's a really good price because I've been looking
at all these other ones and this might sit really
well in my budget. So it's just about the discovery.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
What do you do if you see a work that
you love but it's sold.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
You just chat to that gallery and you say, could
you please let me know when like the artist produces
a new body of work, or do you have something
else by that artist, and you start that dialogue, because
often artists will work in series and they might have
another work that is similar, or might be prepared to
create a new work or a commissioned piece. But I
(45:24):
think it's just about creating a conversation or an expressing interest.
And it's nice to let artists and galleries know that
you love something because they then know that they're on
the right path.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Georgia, there's a question you normally ask me, as I'm
going to turn the table and ask you what makes
a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I'm going to say my children right now, but also
I'm going to say that my children are what makes
my homework not so beautiful as well. Yeah, So I
think it's like the laughter and having the family and
like that's you know, that's that's what I've wanted in
a home, and I've wanted this magical space that a
children and feel like is home and it's their home.
But then at the same time, for me, it's the art.
(46:05):
So I just am surrounded by artwork that I love
and it perhaps might not be meaningful for anyone else,
but our family like their their story, there's stories, and
there's special pieces, and we can talk about where each
of them has come from along the way, which year,
and so I think it is the art that does
the heavy lifting in our house. So I think that's
(46:26):
what people look up to, you know, the hallways just yeah,
it has so much art in it that it's it's
exciting to walk down the hall.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
I can't think of a better answer to that question
from you. It's your daughters make the home beautiful. Yeah,
also not yes.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
They make a little bit messy.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
But the art, yeah, the art, art is everything. Yeah, Georgia,
today has been a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I think you I've had such fun.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I love chatting with you and I can't wait to
do it again. When are we Is it November? We're
together Sidney Affordable Art Fair. I'll see you there, see
you there.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
So my chats with Georgia over the years have really
helped me feel less intimidated about buying art, and I
hope after today's episode you feel the same way too.
If you can get to an affordable art fair and
you don't have to buy anything, they're a really great
way to get inspiration and a hit of culture in
(47:26):
a really accessible way. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
To the edit.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
If you enjoyed this one, check out my chat with
Claudia Lambert, an interior designer who has great advice on
how to make art the star of your home. Will
put a link to that in the show notes. We
have many more episodes coming up, so be sure to
subscribe and follow us wherever you watch and listen. I'm
l Lovelock. We'll see you next time. This episode is
(47:55):
brought to you in partnership with the brand I truly
love and live with, kabooter A Kitchen. This is an
our media podcast. H
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with Kerboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We talk a lot about sport, we talk a lot
about other things, but to have four days of culture
where artists are celebrating.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
A lot of the artists say, like, this is our
art party for the year.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How much do you think people should spend on art?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How much have you got what they're comfortable with? I
think you can buy some really beautiful art and it
doesn't need to break the back. I think you can
start small. Once you sort of start, you get the bug.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm Ol Loveluck, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today I'm chatting with
Georgia Hustace, who is the director of the Affordable Art
Fair here in Australia. We catch up at least a
couple of times a year when we host a breakfast
at the fair together. But today we're swapping roles and
(01:11):
it's might turn to ask the questions from brokering high
value purchases in London and New York to discovering emerging
artists back home. Georgia has experienced both ends of the
art world, and what I love is she now makes
art attainable for everyone, regardless of budget, knowledge, or style.
(01:32):
The advice she shares in this conversation will give you
the confidence to find art you absolutely love and for
know how to display it. Georgia, Welcome to the edit.
We have been having such a giggle already. I think
it's going to be one of those chats.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, I'm very excited. I've been looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
This one, and normally the roles are reversed. So usually
when we are together at the Affordable Art Fair, you're
the one interviewing me exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I'm used to being on the other side, So it's
your turn now, but I'd still love to ask a
few questions as well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Good good, I love questions. Yeah. Fashion, I guess you
could say it's in your blood.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Both of my grandmothers were fashion designers, so I did
grow up from an early age just surrounded by that
sort of conversation, and my dress up cupboard was all
dresses from like the Melbourne cup fashions on the field really,
so one of my grandmother's she was from New York.
She was a shoe designer, and she came across to
(02:33):
Australia and I don't think she found it that exciting,
so it was sort of her job to make it exciting.
And I've got And then my dad says, oh, you know,
you're lucky. Your life is not like he was mixing
drinks when he was ten, you know, and he was
hosting cocktail parties. And my grandma was quite a character.
But then my other grandma, she was the head designer
(02:55):
for Kazer. Oh yeah, so lingerie. And I think and
that was a brand for me growing up. It was
the sort of the Brazilian underwear. And yes, that was
not what I was designing in my day. She had
more respectable sort of silk night dresses. But I think
they got on very well. And that was just a
really nice I mean, a special childhood growing up with
(03:17):
absolutely creative women in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Especial parents, like and what was your childhood home like?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh? Like artistic chaos with piles of things. I think
my mum was a prep and art teacher, so every
day after school was just wads of paper. Yeah, the
right black pen that didn't run. And then like four
or five jars of ink, different colors, so you do
your drawing in pencil. When it was deemed good enough,
(03:45):
you could do the outline and then we would just
be painting. And then every artwork you did went up
on the wall. And so people would come to our
house and they'd say, can we go into the craft room?
And I was like, oh, I thought they might play
with me. But my mum would run these sort of
like workshops in the home, and I think I try
(04:06):
and do that now with our children. Has put their
artwork up on the wall because you feel quite proud
when you are reminded of moments when they're up on
the wall. But it was the floor to ceiling and
very creative. And then dad's an accountant, so he was
sort of, you know, is quite measured. And I think
that's why I love the art fair because I'm running
an art fair, I'm working with artists, I'm being creative
(04:27):
and that's really my great passion. But then I love
the commercial reality of helping others be successful. So yeah,
that little that balance.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So you were surrounded by your own art and other art,
yeah growing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Up, Yeah, I think so Mum paints a lot so
it would always be you know, one more where she'd be,
you know, doing her art, swapping it in and a
lot of moving around of art.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I think, yes, Do you think that shaped what you
do now?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh? Absolutely. I always knew it had to be visual
and that's what excites me, and it was. Yeah. I
always had like those big black kind of art folios
and everywhere I went, you know, collecting postcards. And it
wasn't you know, life wasn't digital, so you couldn't screenshot
it or gather it. So it's always that sort of
pasting and gathering and memories and.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Books and do you still have any of those?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I do, and they felt better at the time, but
you know, it is nice when you look back on
them and you're like, oh, I really remember that time,
like that all that exhibition. And when I was in
London recently, I went to the National Gallery and there
was this postcard that I'd gathered years and years ago,
and I saw the painting of it and it was
just this really special moment because I'd held that postcard
for so long, but I just bought it in the
(05:42):
museum gift shop. I'd never actually seen the painting, but
I loved the postcard enough to buy it, so then
to see the real painting maybe you know, ten years later,
it's like, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That's something I love about the way you think and
the way you work. Is you really bridge the high
end or even the priceless art in some cases with
art that is well, I mean affordableable, yeah, and within
reach exactly made by the hand of an artist who an.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Artist start everywhere. Yeah, every work has its own charm.
And who knows where that artwork will live or go?
And I think it's just saying it. Two days ago,
I found an artwork on Marketplace and I'm a real treasure,
like I'm an rawler, and I saw this work and
I thought, oh, reminds me of a work that my
grandma had in her kitchen. And I called up mom.
(06:31):
I said, Mum, where did that work go? And she said, oh,
I don't know. And so but next thing, you know what,
I was out there at this man's house and his
apartment and he was telling me about the you know,
it's still in its original frame, but it was this
ceramic hand glazed work by an artist who was born
in the thirties, and that was I don't even know
where I've gone with that story, but just sort of
(06:54):
trawling for art. I don't even know what was the question.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That you.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's what's say, you know, work being affordable. And then
I looked up this work and I thought, oh gosh,
if I'd gone and bought that atlant a job, I
would have paid every thousand dollars. And so it's that
I haven't bought it for the value of it, and
I've kind of loved it. I've turned it around and
I've thought, oh wow, that this artist has been appreciated
(07:21):
by many others. But I've bought it because it reminds
me of my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
That's such a wonderful thing about shopping through marketplace or
secondhand shops, and when you don't know the provenance of
a project and deliberating.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It is, and you've bought it just because you love it.
And I think you know many of the artists at affairs,
you know they've started somewhere. And I was thinking to myself, well,
if you like, I think scouting out these these artworks.
So sometimes they lose these stories, but it can give
an artwork a new life very easily. And I know
(07:58):
I'm going to I know it's in the original frame,
but it's in tatters and it's a very dark frame,
and I know I'm going to reframe it, and.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I was going to ask about that, how do you
feel about reframing.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I have some works that I would never reframe because
I think the frame really suits and it's like it's
of the period and I can make it work in
my home. This work, I know, it's just the frames
not much longer for this world, you know, and the
back of it, the papers all kind of motteled, and
it's it's not secure, you know, And I've already hung
(08:30):
it in my house, but it's above the dog bed,
and then I thought what if it fell on the
dog So I think it needs it needs a new life.
But then also I've got some you know, older style
paintings from you know, family members that I've that were
in the sort of gold frames that were probably just
from the shop, and so I've put them in like
a deep white box frame and suddenly they look really fresh,
(08:52):
but they look more important because they've got this depth
to them, and they're actually just like on a little
canvas board that you can get at any art shop.
If you give it a bit of depth that looks,
and you can do that with kids' works as well.
You just give them like a canvas board, give it
a frame and how special like, and then you keep
it forever.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That is so good. So you need what do you need?
You need a canvas sport? Can you put the art
on the canvas board?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, like you just paint. I mean my grandmother used
to paint on them in her nursing home. You know,
it's like those just flat boards that you can probably
buy in a pack of six or something, and then
not all of them are going to be a masterpiece.
So choose the one that you like and then you
can get it framed or you can be doing it
in those the pre framed canvases as well, which are
more available now. I think art supplies it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And then a box frame.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I like a box frame, like kind of like what's
behind you? Just give me a bit of depth? Oh okay, yeah, yeah,
I like that. I mean, I think we see a
lot of pine frames at the moment, but I sometimes
like I liked the white frame. I think it made
it feel fresh.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Take me back to the earlier years of your career.
What's of work did you do well?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I started out at Deutsche and Hackett so an auction house.
So I was managing the gallery there in Melbourne, but
i'd come up to Sydney and then I was phone
bidding and I was putting enormous sales through on credit
cards and researching and writing essays. So I think it
tied in with my art history degree, which I know.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You've done in yeah degree.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, So I loved that. That felt like the romance
of you know, working in a big arts organization and yeah,
very precious artwork. And I loved that because people would
bring in the artworks that they were ready to sell
or have valued, but they would bring in a story
and they would tell you about that it had come
through their family and or they didn't know much about it.
(10:43):
And sometimes you'd say, unfortunately it's a print or you know,
you'd get or sometimes you'd say, wow, that's very valuable.
Antiques broad show just on commercial road like it was,
it was really special and it was a very human
and interaction and because you know, you'd have people coming
(11:03):
in who were buying and selling as a profession, but
you'd have a lot of regular people coming in who'd
inherited something. And it had a story and then yeah,
you'd need time to talk about those stories, for them
to perhaps part with those works or give them the
next chapter. Because I think artworks have a life beyond
the first owner. It's about connection. Yeah, and I think,
(11:26):
And so you asked me what I was. So I
started off at the Action House abound in terms of connection.
So I went from quite a commercial finance like it was,
you know, high value paintings that I was sort of
you know, sitting with and loving and like Chris Deutsche
has the most beautiful art library and it would be
my job to make sure it was all in the
(11:46):
right order, and like that was charming. Like I adored it,
and I learned so much. And then I ended up
moving to London and working for a gallery there and
stayed there a long time, and we had gallery in
New York as well, so I was traveling between the
two cities running there were four galleries, but we did
(12:07):
art fairs all year round, and so I was just
traveling to different art fairs and meeting different people around
the world and seeing how different cities and different communities
would resonate with a particular artists work. And so that
is where my love of artfairs sort of developed, and
I just loved the buzz of an utfair but chatting
to so many people in one.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Day because the affordable outfair where you are? Now, when
did you get.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
We launched in Melbourne in twenty nineteen. Okay so, and
then COVID happened and then we got back on the track.
But twenty nineteen was beautiful, so Royal exhibition building. I
think I've never worked so hard in my life. I
was also pregnant with my first child, but I had
like two projects to deliver. It was great. And then
so yeah six years, my daughter's six so that one
(12:56):
kind of counter. And then we launched in Sydney and
now we're in Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Because you're right, the buzz is intense. How many people
go through.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So in Sydney and Melbourn we have about eighteen thousand
people through and then Brisbane nearly fifteen. So yeah, it's
a lot of eyes in front of art.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What I love most about it is it makes buying
art or even just going to look at art feel
less intimidating. And that's what struck me the first time
I went. I felt like I could go around and
look at whatever I wanted, and no one was going
to look down on me or judge me or think
(13:38):
why you're here you can't afford this.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I think our goal is to have it feel really welcoming.
And our galleries and our artists they're a huge part
in that. Like they're very chatty, and they're not in
their studios and they're not in their galleries. We have
a lot of regional galleries kind of coming in and
it's this platform where for four days you can sort
of show your best work and receive feed back and
(14:01):
chat to people and talk to people about art. I
think it's like we.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Talk a lot about sport, we talk a lot about
other things, but to have four days of culture where
artists are celebrating a lot of the artists say like,
this is our art party for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
For the city. Because now a lot of our artists
and galleries will travel definitely to celebrate art, like from
nine to nine every day.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And you're right about the cities. What I notice is
people get dressed up to go to these fairs, and
each city has its own slook and style.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I find Brisbane particularly hard because I'm like, oh, what
do I wear in Brisbane? But now I know because
our Brisbane audience get really dressed up.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They do.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
There's this real sense of occasion and it's really lovely
and there's bright colors. Everyone in Brisbane looks beautiful, like
it is a go just gorgeous fair. And then Melbourne
it's different altogether. You know, there's beautiful love you Melbourne, Yes, yes,
we love I love Melbourne. I love it. I can
(15:10):
wear my coats all week long. And then I think
the rest of the team like, how do you have
so many coats? I live in Melbourne. But I think
it's more layering, and you know, the opening night you
kind of go out for dinner and Truth Street after
and it's that sort of fun night out, but it's
wintery and it's cold, and the artworks always slightly it's
(15:31):
a bit moodier. It's got a different feel to it.
And then Sydney re launching. We moved last year to
Carriageworks and gosh, that was fun. I mean we had
the markets Carriageworks on the weekend, the farmers' markets and
I think, you know, you had people in the active wear,
but you had people dressed to the nines and it
was just and it was a very warm, warm, fair.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
When it comes to the home, there are so many
decisions to be made every day here at the Edit,
we want to make those choices that little bit easier,
sharing advice from our guests and experts like Kaboodle Kitchen,
who I'm happy to say have helped me find solutions
for our listener dilemma this episode, today we have a
DM from Jane from Narrabeen. She says, I'm renovating my
(16:19):
kitchen and love the look of timber cupboards, but I
have no idea what will work in my home. I
want a modern, classic look with marble style porcelain worktops
and polished nickel handles and taps. Where do I even
start with the cupboards? Jane, you are not alone in
this overwhelm. I love that you have your bench tops
(16:41):
and hardware sorted. You can use these choices to guide
which timber looks you choose, and when it comes to timber,
the best thing to do is think in terms of colors.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have you ever.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Noticed how some timbers look cool and others look warm? Well,
from that point you'll start to notice each timber has
its own color undertone that it could be red, blue, yellow, black,
white gray. So think about what colors you love to
decorate with elsewhere in your home. If you prefer cool blues,
(17:18):
go for something with a gray or silver finish. If
you like a sunnier color palette, try a honeyed or
classic oak. It can be difficult to imagine what a
finish will look like, so I always recommend people get swatches,
not just so they can see the color in real life,
(17:39):
but so they can see how it will look in
the space they're renovating. A really good place to start
is kitchen retailers like Kaboodle Kitchen, so you can jump
online and browser finishes and then order swatches, which can
be delivered to your home, or head into your local
Bunnings because there they'll have swatches in the Kaboodle kitchen section. Now,
(18:01):
when you get home, leave the swatches in the room
you're renovating and see what they look like at different
lights and different times of day. It is actually amazing
how a color can completely change when it's in situ. Now,
also place the swatches next to your other materials, the
bench top and the hardware. Just play around see which
(18:23):
combinations you like best. Speaking of which, one of my
favorite looks with white marble and polish nickel is darker
timber cabinetree. My choice is the Kaboodle swatch in truffle
oak for that real Nancy Mayer's feel. I love the
dark contrast, but if you prefer a lighter look, hazel
(18:44):
nut v is a gorgeous, cool neutral tone that would
look amazing with your palette. Then again, pretty much any
oak will also work. So there's Cajun oak oak latte look.
I could go on, but the best thing to do
is to just watch and play. Explore kitchen and laundry
inspiration at kaboodle dot com dot au. What can people
(19:10):
expect if they've never been to an art fair before?
To show up to the affordable art fair? Do you
pay to get in? Do you have a set time limit?
Can you spend the whole day?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I think people say, oh, what is an art fair?
It's like an art fair. We build white walls.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
The galleries can paint them a color if they like
to sort of personalize their space. But each gallery will
have their own booth.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
We encourage them to make that booth their own and
so create a mood, create a feeling, show artwork that
you're proud of. That's sort of distinctly you as a visitor.
You can buy a ticket to come in where they're
for four days. You might buy a four day pass,
but or a one day pass. But I think if
you come back and you're wanting to come back and
(19:57):
buy something, we'll always let you back in. That's good
to know. I think it's like, you know, if you've
shown that you're interested, and then the galleries will say,
we'll come back and see me the next day. Because
some people are able to make that immediate decision. I
know I want it, I'll buy it now. Then other
people will say I just need to sleep on it.
And often if you've waken up after sleeping on it
(20:18):
and you're still thinking about it, you're running back that
next morning before someone else gets it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Definitely, let's get into that a little bit more. How
do you encourage people or advise people to buy art?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Say, just go with your gut, so like, you're not
buying artwork for me, you're buying artwork for yourself, and
you have to connect with it and people. Obviously I'm
asked this a lot, like what should I buy? I'm like,
I can't tell you what to buy. I'll say, can
you show me what you like? You know, do you
have photos on your phone? Or sometimes I'll just say that,
(20:50):
like I did this with my sister last year. Please
just walk around with your phone, take photos of everything
that you love and come back to me and then like,
I really interesting I'm looking. I'm like, wow, you can
really see your style? Oh do I have a style?
You absolutely have a style, because yeah, by just like
seeing through someone else's eyes what they're attracted to, it
(21:12):
becomes quite clear. And I've you know, my sister's taste
is quite quirky. She lots of things of animals, but
she loves ceramics. And so then we had a nice
walk around and kind of she could meet the artists
or become confident chatting to people about the work and
knowing what questions to ask, which might be can you
tell me about the work? Yeah, like you can just
(21:32):
ask with that, and then it's just a conversation starter,
and then the gallerius or the artists will start opening
up and telling you more. And then often there's just
something in there that hooks you in and you're like, oh,
well that got me there, and now I feel like
I know a bit more about it. Yeah, because if
someone you've got something in your home and someone says.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Oh, where did you get that?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
There's often a story and it's nice to sort of
know a little bit about the work that you agree.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Sometimes when I've been with you at the fair pace,
people will come and ask questions and show your photo
of a room and say, I've got this wall and
I need to buy artwork for this wall.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
How do we acate that? And it happens, like you've
seen it happen. It happens all the time, and it's
sort of there's things like there's obviously scale, you know,
you need the wall to have well the artworks have
enough presence, yes, And there's wallpower.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You can have a small work that has big wallpower. Yeah,
you can have a big work that's perhaps a bit
flat and not singing. Yeah. So a lot of our
galleries are really good at just advising that. So I say,
you know, show them a photo. They might say, do
you think you need slightly bigger? Or let me see
what else I've got in my stock room, or yeah,
maybe I'll maybe a commission if it's a particular space
(22:47):
that you're looking that feels so exact to you that
then often I just say, just go around to find
things that you love, and you will find that piece
for that couch. Don't rush into buying something just for
the sake of it, because you will find that peace.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, it's a big jigsaw. You'll find the corners eventually
for the jigsaw.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like, oh, definitely, speaking of corners. Back to framing. I
love that you can buy the artwork you love, yes,
but then the framing is what can make it work
in a space.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah. I think people can be a bit scared about framing.
It so fun. I think if you find the right
framer and you or even if you just have an
example of something and you sort of take it in,
but you can houser work quite differently. I always frame
for the artwork itself because I feel like they're like
my friends. I want to frame them in the right book. Yeah,
(23:37):
I don't want to frame them for my house in
a way, and then eventually they find their grouping.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And I don't mind mismatched frames. I like that me too.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, but you can change the scale, you can change
the shaper.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, Like I love float, I love works on paper.
I have a lot of sort of lino cuts, and
I I love float mounting them so that they're sitting
a bit further from the mount board than giving it
a nice border, playing around with perhaps the color of
the mount board, and then having a simple frame with
a fill it at the side so it gives a
bit of a debt so it doesn't look like a
(24:14):
poster like that. Yeah, so that can do wonders for anything. Yeah, yeah,
like you can make that artwork feel more special.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
How much do you think people should spend on art?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Oh? How much have you got what they're comfortable with?
I think you can buy some really beautiful art and
it doesn't need to break the bank. I think you
can start small. Once you sort of start, you get
the bug and you gradually, like that number that you're
comfortable with seems to grow, or you can sort of
like I'm on a current mission to buy bigger work,
(24:49):
and so my husband and I like maybe less Like
most fares, I'll come home with something small in most ofircase,
and this time it's like, so this year, I'm like,
I'd like to buy to something big at the end
of the year. Yes, But in terms of what people spend.
I think no one ever regrets buying an artwork now
I certainly haven't, so I think you live with it
every day.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, cost per where, cost cost per cost per site
and love cost per That sounds of it because if
you pick them up for is it from one hundred.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Dollars from one hundred dollars for original? Yeah, And I
think that's the thing, Like the works are all original,
they're all by the hand of an artist. The money
is sort of like it. It's not a poster, it's
not mass produced. If it's a print, it's an addition
size that's reasonable and unique. Yes, so I think, And
you're supporting a living artist. So all of our artists
(25:42):
at the fair are living, which seems like a funny
thing to say, but it's like they're the ones that
need the money.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And historically some artists have only become popular after they've
died exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So nowhere we have artists that are fair who are
living and very popular and gaining popularity as well as
they show across three different cities, and they build up
their sort of their body of work, and perhaps they
can sustain themselves by showing it three and then moving
into becoming full time artists and then sort of selling
(26:16):
their works, but then producing works quietly in the studio
in between.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, what should an artist do if they want to
become part of the fair?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Just send us an email all the time. Okay. Yeah,
So we have a beautiful gallery relations manager, Joe. Yes,
so she's on the other end of the email, and
then we have lots of chats and emails. We have
sort of hanging guides and ideas on how to apply
for the fair. And it's quite real. Okay, we're a
small team.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
How that feels, Yes, exactly. I'd like to go to
your place.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Oh gosh, would you?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, and you'd be welcome to You have said that
your house, which you own, we do. It's not your
style at all.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It will be one day.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So what style is it?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Why did you buy it? Well, for what it will be,
I think like I love it and I love the
inside of it. When we bought it. It's sort of
the cream brick house on a street of Victorian houses.
So our house has been given a very special treatment.
So I think, like the next door, there are a
few people in our streets sort of restoring their homes
(27:30):
to former glory, but ours was particularly embellished with crean
brick Corinthian columns really thick her out. So we've gradually
done the garden on like ourselves, and I've added in
like a winding sort of slate bluestone kind of replica
bluestone path which is curved. But when we bought it,
(27:52):
it was like a straight path lined with gladiola of
an era and like a really thick like when we
went to pull the fence out, it was like really
very deep. Just he was a boiler maker, like a beautiful,
beautiful Greek family, and it was a family home in
the like in the family for years. Our side fence
(28:14):
was made of railway sleepers with sort of fence that
was almost driftwood by the time that we got it.
So there was a lot of love put into our house.
But say all of the ceilings were lowered and put
with sort of decorative geometric ceiling plasters and a lot
of amber glass. Everything's a little bit wonky, but it's
(28:34):
a beautiful street and beautiful neighbors, and we have a
really beautiful garden with pomegranates and lemons and figs. So
like I love I love for the home that it
has been and it has a really good feeling. Yeah,
it's just like I have this dream of restoring it
to perhaps match the other houses in the streets.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So was it originally Victorian?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Oh okay, do you know what beneath?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Not a lot? Yeah, So I think we bought the
house and then I had our first daughter that week
and to sort of had the thickest carpet like brown
and yellow, dark brown and yellow swirls, and we got
the keys. We dropped the keys. We could not find
for age just because the carpet was just so thick
(29:24):
and the pattern was so dense, and I was like, oh,
where are they? And the whole house was in this carpet,
so and then the drapes are really thick. And anyway,
we found the keys, and then we pulled up the carpet.
I think we thought it was going to be like
the most beautiful flooring underneath. Yeah, probably isn't the most
beautiful flooring underneath. So we sort of sanded it all
back and the original ceilings aren't there. But do you
(29:47):
know what we just we still we still love it.
It's just a bit wonky and we've got I'm always
thinking about what we're going to do. We have done
what we can do. You know, I've painted all the walls,
We've pulled all the wall paper off, We've added we
added in a dishwasher.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
You are leaving a dream.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The kitchen was actually like our kitchen was more of
a show kitchen. And then she had a separate laundry
at the back with a cast iron, you know, the green,
old kind of cast iron. But then we realized like
the exhaust of it went straight into the wall, so
it was just a bit. But we've made it, made
(30:28):
it ours for now, but we will. We sort of
lots of chats about what it will be.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
How does art figure in your home?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Art does all the hard work. So I think people
come over and they're like, oh, this makes sense. I
thought it would, like this is you and because like
I said, like they are all my old friends, you know,
they're all like I've traveled and brought them with me
and they all have a special sort of story to them,
(30:57):
so I feel good being around them. But I think
artwork possibly makes sense to people that know me. It's
like a little bit quirky and the color palette is me.
I think I'm in all white today, but that's just
because I'm not with my children. So this feels like
a bit of a power move to like not be
wearing pastal color. Normally I'm in color, but I thought
(31:18):
I'll just keep it clean today. But yeah, I think
the artworks has a similar sort of pastal kind of
color palette.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Well, I feel like this is a good point to
find out about your mystery draw item. Okay, so what
have you brought in today? It's something from your bit
of a ruffle.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I mean, there's going to be the great unveiling, but
I think it's it's not from my drawer, but it
moves around all the time. Okay, just step from our
art fair last year.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
For anyone who's listening and can't see, we have the
bubble wrap going and that's what you can hear.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I've got bubble wrap because we love wrapping up works
are fair. And I got the tissue paper because it's
actually an oil. It's got a bit of oil pastor.
This is an artwork. It's called fun Sun and it
just made me feel really happy.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
And I bought it from Claudio Kirak, who was an
artist in action at our last year's fait. I did
not go to that fair planning to buy a wooden
cutout of a sun. And I was just chatting to him,
and I was chatting to him and I was having
the best conversation. I looked up and I saw it
on the wall and I just said, I please have
(32:36):
that one. And it was, you know, two hundred dollars,
and I thought, oh, just put it in one of
the kid's rooms. It hasn't made it to the kid's
rooms yet because I've had it in the kitchen, I've
had it. It just kind of goes anywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It is so happy.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, it's just a reminder, like the sun shines every day,
like Tomorrow's a new day. Smile. I think instead of
a clock in our kitchen, we just have the sun.
How would you describe this, I would say it's a
very happy, happy work. So it's like a it's a
cutout wooden. It's a wooden. It's not a sun with
(33:13):
jagged edges. It's like a wavy piece of wood that
he's painted a son on with big oil pastor smile,
and he works quite rapidly and fast, and it just
has that expression of pure joy and it's not taking
itself too seriously.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, and not that you should touch art.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I mean, I mean this has come with me from
Sydney Melbourne and I brought it back, so it's trail
and he's come from Queensland. So but I think it's
a mark in time. For me. It was like, oh
remember that great chat that we had and yeah, I
just it just made me feel happy. It was a
bit of a and I think the next work I'd
like to buy was be, you know, a traditional oil painting.
(33:51):
So there's no.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Exactly it was just no rhyme or reasons, just because
you love it.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, a marker of time.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's so beautiful. He lets this guy up, we.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Can put him back in the bag, put him away. Yeah.
So I mean, I've got lots of different items in drawers,
but I think I think artwork kind of moving around
and finding new homes is probably this was the story.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Well, let's go back to your place. I want to
ask some questions around your house rules. So this is
we'll get to know you a little bit. Answer as
best you can. Yeah, shoes on or off?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We are are shoes on house. But I would love
to be a shoes off house. I think I grew
up with shoes on and I didn't know that there
was an option, And now I'm like, oh, I'd love
to be one of those houses. It seems way cleaner.
But I've got two labradors and so my house I'm
vacuuming a lot anyway. Yeah, and our floor leads a
(34:51):
bit to be desired, So I think footwear is good
in our house.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
How about being in Melbourne it can get quite cool.
Blankets or doners. Do you call it a douner or
a douvet or.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I think I used to call it a douvet, but
now I'm back in Austraya, we call it douna. But
I have it all like I have, you know, douner blankets.
I'm always freezing and I've actually just invested in an
electric blanket, which makes me seem very old, but it's
been life changing. But yeah, blankets everywhere. I love. I
(35:25):
love blankets. My mum crochets like these amazing little tiny,
tiny squares and the girls will have these blankets on
the end of their bed and she quilts, so we've
got Liberty quilts on the girl's beds. But I love
just layers and warmth and our house is freezing.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So are you a candle?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yes? Do you know? My husband's very into candles. That's
like a bit of a he's a bit of a pyro,
you know, he loves.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Like is he into candles?
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I don't know, Like I'm like, that's a good candle.
Can you just like doesn't need to go all day?
But when we met, the first gift he gave me
was this beautiful Earl of East London candles. So we
were sort of like living there and I think that
brand had just sort of started out, and they're like
these brown glass jars and I love a woody like
woody scent.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Do you like them for special occasions or when people
come over?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I think no more for us? And we went if
the house feels like it just needs a bit of
a bit of like you know, open the windows, kind
of put the candle on like a reset?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah? How often do you reset your home?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Oh? Look, I've got three kids, so non stop. But
I look, I'm not excelling at it, but I'm trying hard.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Are you a tidy person or are you piles of stuff?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'm a piles girl. I wish I wasn't. But I
can't pretend I'm not. No, I just collect too many things,
and I'm always, you know, trying and condensing, but it's
never ending. It's not my vibe.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Tell me something in your home that is always fresh flowers?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Oh what do you choose? I will go to the
garden first. Yep. So often it might be fresh mint.
That's kind of like if I've got that that sort
of grows like wildfire and it sort of smells good.
I yeah, just kind of what I can find in
there over summer. I grow dahlia's.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Have you always been a gardener.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I've always loved flowers. It's always been probably what I
was collecting postcards of. And we talk about a lot.
But since sort of inheriting this beautiful garden, I've felt
this sort of not like this yearning to look after it.
And our kids spend a lot of time in the garden,
and we've recently got monkey bars, so I sort out there, Yeah,
(37:56):
there are a lot and we have this pommy on
a tree and that like there are just special times
throughout the year where like the girls are out there
kind of opening up the pomegranites and the birds are
out there and yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Very lucky with that scene in mind. What does your
home sound like?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Quite noisy? I think our neighbors said, we always know
when when you're home. I think it's like, yeah, for
three little girls and they are chat chat chatting away,
and often the sound is like the pram. They're toy
pram going up and up and down in the you
know that's sort of yes, yir full of bunnies, or
(38:39):
like help me, I'm stuck on the monkey bars or
you know, so children, I would say.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
How old are they?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
They are six four and one two next week? Gorgeous. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Do they have any artistic traits coming through?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I think so. They all love sort of drawing we've
always got. There's always making happening, and I think I'm
just trying to allow the magic to happen and not
worry about the mess for now, because there will be
times where my coffee table books can be where I
left them. So yeah, there is that creativity. And I
think I took what my middle daughter Emmy to the
(39:18):
dentist yesterday and she said she gave the dentisty turned
up and she said, here's some lavender for you, and
I hadn't even known that she picked it, but I thought,
oh wow, she knows even the names of the flowers,
so I think that's sort of part of perhaps what
they've been exposed to.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And it's hospitable.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, yeah, normally we were scared of the dentist, but
it was good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
After the break, Georgia shares how to solve the greatest
art crime she sees in Australian homes. Back to art,
Is there an art crime that you see in Australian
homes that you wish people wouldn't do?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I don't. I don't think it's like an Australian thing.
I think sometimes like I'm just aware of how people
hanging works. So sometimes I'm like, oh wow, that's really
low or that's extremely high. And then sometimes I will
hang things slightly higher because I'm quite tall. So like
in a gallery you might hang things with a midpoint
(40:20):
of one hundred and fifty centimeters or one hundred and
fifty five, and I like hanging one hundred and sixty
because my eyes are a bit taller. So it's exactly yeah,
kind of like where you're going to be looking at,
enjoying the art, Where where it's like at your mid
mid level.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Okay, so you want around your eye height to be
going to the center of the art.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Pretty much, so you're sort of it's sort of, yeah,
an easy viewing height for you can obviously play around
with things and create drama and moments and that that's
sort of like a midpoint of one working. You can
go up from there and down from there. I had
an art installer I was working with who came back
with this incredible story that he just installed artwork in
(41:04):
a gentleman's home who was in a wheelchair, and he
hung all of his works at a height that he
could view from his care and I just thought, like,
that is his home, That's how it should be. So
I love that. So it's like you're hanging for you.
But sometimes I see some wild things so high it's
(41:26):
like just a little bit upward. But I'm not judging,
you know, like I just I just think fit of
or like you know, sometimes you'll think that you know,
you hang everything with the bottom line the same, or
that like I like to hang things with the midpoint
the same.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
That is such good advice because a lot of us
don't know, and you do see artworks that are hung
exactly that way, either the bottom line yeah, level or
the top yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I can see why like that it does make sense.
I don't think to me it makes sense more just
to have them yeah in the middle.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Have you ever witness or experienced any exchanges with couples
where you've had to step in or step away?
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yeah, definitely when you just I think I'm just going
to leave it to you, you know, like I'm not
pushing anyone into buying work, and sometimes one person will
really want that that work. And no. Actually friend friend
of mine in Brisbane, they're yeah, a couple. They were coming.
It was their first out buying experience, and like he
(42:29):
has such a like a distinct style. And then I've
only just met her and I was thinking, gosh, he's
got a specific style. Anyway, came back, he'd bought the
work and she was thinking, oh, like, well, I'm just
going to go buy one too. They both they both
just went and bought separate works. They'll find places in
the homes. But I think it was just this side. Well,
if you're going to buy one, I think I'll buy one.
(42:51):
So that's fair.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, how do you back away or excuse yourself. If
an exchange is getting a little heated.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Just gently, I think, yeah, I don't need to be
part of that. No, No, I think normally, like on
the whole, it's normally just such an excited, exciting time
and people will say like, oh, how do I like
I've had like how do I do it? Well, just
go you can go up and ask them if it's available,
can I buy it? And they'll be thrilled. But it
is that like sometimes you've committed in your mind, you
(43:21):
know that you want that artwork, but what's the next step? Well,
the next step is it's true like to just go
and chat to the artist or the gallery owner and say,
you know, is that available? I'd actually like to buy it,
and they'll just say sure, like it's quite It's it's
not harsh, but it's just almost voicing out loud that
you're ready or asking the galleries I'm thinking about buying it, like,
(43:44):
and then they'll probably guide you through the process or
talk to you about the artist or the technique and
you might say, oh, wow, I loved that artwork without
even knowing all of the backstory and how it was made,
and I didn't know the depth to the storytelling and
you've and then you're definitely buying it.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Then our price is always displayed.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yes, yes, So every price is on a label with
the medium and the artist's name, and so you can
feel comfortable that it is in your price range, or
that you might take a photo and think about it
or think about that it might be something that you
buy in the future. But it can be about just
getting your eye in and figuring out what prices original
(44:26):
artwork sells at because the art needs to take into
account that the artist has spend their time making it,
they've got the materials, they've got years of training, and
so it's probably it is a great thing being able
to see the prices because sometimes you think, oh, I'm
always attracted to the works that are that price, but
then you find it work and you think, actually, I
(44:48):
know that's a really good price because I've been looking
at all these other ones and this might sit really
well in my budget. So it's just about the discovery.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
What do you do if you see a work that
you love but it's sold.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
You just chat to that gallery and you say, could
you please let me know when like the artist produces
a new body of work, or do you have something
else by that artist, and you start that dialogue, because
often artists will work in series and they might have
another work that is similar, or might be prepared to
create a new work or a commissioned piece. But I
(45:24):
think it's just about creating a conversation or an expressing interest.
And it's nice to let artists and galleries know that
you love something because they then know that they're on
the right path.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Georgia, there's a question you normally ask me, as I'm
going to turn the table and ask you what makes
a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I'm going to say my children right now, but also
I'm going to say that my children are what makes
my homework not so beautiful as well. Yeah, So I
think it's like the laughter and having the family and
like that's you know, that's that's what I've wanted in
a home, and I've wanted this magical space that a
children and feel like is home and it's their home.
But then at the same time, for me, it's the art.
(46:05):
So I just am surrounded by artwork that I love
and it perhaps might not be meaningful for anyone else,
but our family like their their story, there's stories, and
there's special pieces, and we can talk about where each
of them has come from along the way, which year,
and so I think it is the art that does
the heavy lifting in our house. So I think that's
(46:26):
what people look up to, you know, the hallways just yeah,
it has so much art in it that it's it's
exciting to walk down the hall.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
I can't think of a better answer to that question
from you. It's your daughters make the home beautiful. Yeah,
also not yes.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
They make a little bit messy.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
But the art, yeah, the art, art is everything. Yeah, Georgia,
today has been a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I think you I've had such fun.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I love chatting with you and I can't wait to
do it again. When are we Is it November? We're
together Sidney Affordable Art Fair. I'll see you there, see
you there.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
So my chats with Georgia over the years have really
helped me feel less intimidated about buying art, and I
hope after today's episode you feel the same way too.
If you can get to an affordable art fair and
you don't have to buy anything, they're a really great
way to get inspiration and a hit of culture in
(47:26):
a really accessible way. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
To the edit.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
If you enjoyed this one, check out my chat with
Claudia Lambert, an interior designer who has great advice on
how to make art the star of your home. Will
put a link to that in the show notes. We
have many more episodes coming up, so be sure to
subscribe and follow us wherever you watch and listen. I'm
l Lovelock. We'll see you next time. This episode is
(47:55):
brought to you in partnership with the brand I truly
love and live with, kabooter A Kitchen. This is an
our media podcast. H
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