Each summer Sydney flaunts Sculpture by the Sea and now the Blue Mountains is flexing its Jurassic muscles in response, with the inaugural Sculpture at Scenic World exhibition transforming the Jamison Valley into a spectacular rainforest gallery.

Reached via the world’s steepest incline railway at Scenic World and situated along a 2.4-kilometre boardwalk buried in the heart of the Blue Mountains wilderness, the exhibition showcases works by 26 artists hailing from Belfast to Katoomba.

The sculptures – including a 90kg chandelier, a gigantic metal bird and 1500 ceramic flowers – were created specifically for the exhibition and selected by esteemed judges, Macquarie University Sculpture Park curator Leonard Janiszewski and University of Western Sydney art curator Monica McMahon.

Each artist is also a contender for the inaugural $20,000 Scenic World Acquisitive Award and a trophy designed by internationally acclaimed glass artist Keith Rowe.

An Australian Government-funded initiative under T-QUAL Grants and sponsored by Scenic World, CAL Cultural Fund and the Fairmont Resort, Sculpture at Scenic World is anticipated to attract an international and national audience of 60,000 visitors.

The exhibition includes guided and independent tours, lectures, artist talks and exhibition sales. Entry is free with every Scenic Railway ticket, and Scenic World attraction packages and family passes are also available.

Date: 16 February – 11 March, 2012

Time: Daily from 9am – 5pm

Guided tours: Tuesdays at 1.30pm; Wednesdays & Sundays at 10.30am

Tour bookings essential: email reservations@scenicworld.com.au

Address: Corner of Violet Street & Cliff Drive, Katoomba NSW 2780

Ph: +61 (0)2 4780 0200

For more information visit: www.scenicworld.com.au/sculpture

Blue Mountains resident Sophie Seeger is the feature artist for Falls Artfest 2011 and will exhibit a series of expressionist and abstract works throughout the exhibition on 29 & 30 October.

This fabulous annual event showcases affordable art and craft created by local Blue Mountains artists and spanning a range of mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, glass, photography, mixed media and original handmade arts and crafts.

This year's optional theme for artists, sponsored by WorldHeritageArt.com, is 100 Miles of Art, celebrating the local community and environment. Major sponsors of the event are Chemmart Pharmacy Wentworth Falls and Ausgrid.

WorldHeritageArt.com Chairman, Maurice Cooper OAM, is Chief Judge of a panel identifying which artworks best interpret this year's theme.

All attendees to the exhibition are invited to vote for the People's Choice Award, generously sponsored by Mountain High Pies.

For every $50 spent on art or craft, purchasers receive an entry form for a chance to win a Bufori sports car on display at the exhibition and valued at more than $150,000 as an ex-demonstration model.

Falls Artfest opening night, sponsored by D'Vine Cellars, unveils on Friday 28 October 2011 at Wentworth Falls Public School, Falls Road. For more information please visit the official website: www.fallsartfest.org.au.

Autumn and the Archibald are what Australian and international art-lovers look forward to annually. It's definitely the highest-profile award of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman trio.

This year's winner of the Archibald is Sam Leach's depiction of singer/songwriter Tim Minchin. Minchin is building an international reputation with his off-kilter brand of musical comedy. With his artfully unkempt hair, heavy eye make-up and bare feet, his act is a wickedly entertaining mix of piano playing, cheerfully offensive songs, physical comedy and stand-up.

Leach says he approached Minchin ‘primarily because I really like his style of comedy. The topics he deals with – social commentary, the appeal to reason over religion and that kind of thing – tie in with my work.'

Born in Adelaide in 1973 and based in Melbourne, Leach has a Bachelor of Arts, Honours (Painting) and a Master of Art (Fine Arts) from RMIT University. He won the Metro5 Art Award and the Fletcher Jones Prize in 2006 and the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award in 2007. He has had ten solo shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and has been represented in various group shows. This is his fourth consecutive year in the Archibald Prize.

This is the second year in Archibald’s history that an artist has won both the Archibald and the Wynne prizes in the same year, the first being William Dobell in 1948. Brett Whiteley won all three prizes, Archibald, Wynne & Sulman in 1978. Leach's Proposal for landscaped cosmos is the artist's second winner, taking the 2010 Wynne Prize. Reminiscent of a cross between an 18th century landscape and a surreal scene from another planet, the scene paints a serene and bountiful land, with hazy clouds and mountains in the background reflected in a pale body of water. The foreground shows dark trees with roots twisting and feeding from rich, rotten mulch. All this is topped by a strangely regular smattering of stars.

Michael Lindeman's 'Paintings, prints & wall hangings' took the Sulman Prize. It depicts an excerpt from a newspaper classifieds selling artworks and art-related products. This precisely executed work seems to be making a tongue-in-cheek comment on the crass dollar value of art, seemingly bogged in Australian suburbia.

The Archibald Prize in portraiture is one of Australia's oldest and most prestigious art awards. JF Archibald’s primary aims were to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. Since its inception in 1921 the prize has been awarded to some of Australia’s most important artists, including George Lambert, William Dobell and Brett Whiteley.

In the terms of the bequest of the late Richard Wynne of Mount Wilson, who died in 1895, the Wynne Prize is awarded to what the judges consider to be the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours, or for the best example of figure sculpture by an Australian artist. It was first awarded in 1897, in honour of the official opening of the Art Gallery of New South Wales at its present site.

The Sulman Prize is awarded for the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project by an Australian artist. Established within the terms of the late Sir John Sulman’s bequest, it was first awarded in 1936.

The Archibald winner receives $50,000, the Wynne Prize winner receives $25,000 for landscape painting or figure sculpture, the Sulman Prize winner receives $20,000 for subject/genre painting and/or mural work and the Watercolour Prize (part of the Wynne Prize) winner receives $2,000.

For images of all the winners and finalists, visit www.thearchibaldprize.com.au.

There are two sides. Artwork commissioner Vesna Tenodi and the Aboriginal people. The former, together with artist Ben Osvath, claims to stand for artistic freedom. The latter? Can there be one answer from many different people?

The controversy is over a prominently displayed artwork at the ModroGorje Wellness and Art Centre in Katoomba. “Watchers in the Whispering Stone” is an 8.5-tonne stone sculpture, which was unveiled to the public on March 6, briefly after it was attacked and vandalized.

Some cynics may think it was put there to attract attention to her book, or visitors to the centre, which owner Tenodi says was closed down by council. However, Tenodi claims creation of the work is “Good, right and beautiful. The sculpture was created with the utmost respect.” Tenodi also insists that many members of the aboriginal community have defended her right to commission and exhibit the sculpture, even going so far as to thank her for being inspired by aboriginal culture.

On the other hand, members of the aboriginal community claim the sculpture is disrespectful and insulting. It depicts altered interpretations of the powerful Wandjina image, which is widely known to belong to indigenous tribes of the Kimberley region in Western Australia and is especially sacred to them. As reported by Tim Elliott in the Sydney Morning Herald, the owner of Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in Bondi, Adrian Newstead, said local Aborigines have every right to be disgusted. ''Only a few Aboriginal artists ever win the right to depict wanjina, and only then after years of initiations and ceremonies."

The Sydney Morning Herald article went on to quote Chris Tobin, a member of the local Darug people who works as a guide with the National Parks and Wildlife Service - "It's totally inappropriate for a non-indigenous person to be doing wanjinas, especially without permission. Aboriginal law is very specific on what you can and can't do with wanjinas." Tenodi and Osvath are of Croatian origin.

Stronger protests were sparked by the artwork. Emotions spilled over during a meeting with Aborigines, at which Osvath was called "a dog". One man told Tenodi: "You are going to die. You'll die soon; you'll die a terrible, terrible death."

Tobin concedes that such threats may have been made "in the heat of the moment" but "we do believe there will be spiritual repercussions for Vesna for doing these things".

Reports in the local Blue Mountains Gazette and Sydney press prove that art and controversy never seem far apart. Or religion and controversy for that matter. We all remember the protesting Muslims directing their discontent at the Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” - which depicted images of Mohammed. Pop-star Madonna with her crucifixes in the 1980s. And there are countless occasions in history where Jews are depicted in a negative light in art. So is the issue of artistic acceptability when the intent behind an artwork is honorable? If so, who’s to judge and who’s to censor? Are there certain areas that should just be left alone? Or should art be one of the few places in society where “anything goes”?

If you'd like to comment, write to akazis@worldheritageart.com

Menzies Art Brands recently sold Sidney Nolan’s 1946 work First-Class Marksman for a record-breaking $4.5m. Only nine bids stood between the undisclosed phone bidder and the artwork. Helen McKenzie of the Australian Art Sales Digest reported that "there was an air of confident selling in the room with all but one of the preceding 50 lots selling, warming the expectant crowd for a big sale for the headlining Nolan work".

After reading “The Artful Entrepreneur” in the Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 2010, story by Julianne Dowling, it was interesting to note the tale of Anthony Ghattas.

Dubbed a “serial entrepreneur” because he “has managed to build up a successful lifestyle brand United Lifestyle Group - including two galleries in Perth and Sydney and a burgeoning wine group – at a time when many galleries and wine outfits have crumbled under the financial pressure” this go-getting young-gun has now teamed up with the successful Sam Kennard of the Kennard Storage family.

One notable fact of this story was that a lot of art, including the high-priced variety, is increasingly sold over the phone with the purchaser looking online at the work rather than in the gallery. This is because time poor collectors are buying by name and knowledge.

In the story, Mr Ghattas was quoted as saying “There are no borders with art; the only border is trust.” His stable of artists includes the WorldHeritageArt.com artist Wendy Sharpe.