Miniature masterpieces

Start your art collection with small works by big names

This November will be the 10th anniversary of Art on a Postcard (AOAP), the timed online auction founded to raise money for The Hepatitis C Trust. Initially, artists were asked to create an anonymous, postcard-sized work of art for auction, which made the bidding process particularly piquant. Nowadays, artworks are attributed to artists and the big names continue to donate – Grayson Perry, Julian Opie, Andrew Cranston, Vanessa Garwood, Antonia Showering and Shaqúelle Whyte among them. To date, AOAP has raised over £2.5million for the Trust and has recently run similar auctions for other worthy causes, such as War Child and International Women’s Day. The barnstorming initiative is the brainchild of filmmaker Gemma Peppé, who spends her year combing art schools and Instagram for new talent, as well as approaching established artists around the world for contributions. The online auctions are open for two weeks and all bids start at £50, sometimes going up to as high as £11,000 for a very sought-after or fashionable artist’s work. Says Gemma: ‘High-profile artists are happy to do it if it’s a cause that they like, while for emerging talent – art graduates and outsider artists – it’s a great platform for others to discover them and to own a bit of their work before they are priced out of the market. These auctions allow you to be a prolific collector of contemporary art on a small scale.’ If you’re not lucky enough to win one of the 650 or so postcards up for grabs, box-sets of greetings cards featuring the best artworks are sold throughout the year.

Find out more about upcoming auctions and buy greetings cards at artonapostcard.com