The Art Scene was established in 1978 when its founder Mr Henry Malouf (a dedicated hobby artist) decided he could no longer remain retired at the early age of 50.

With the help of his wife Evelyn and 4 children Paul, Julie, Kim and Greg who one by one gave up their careers to work in the business, they now have a thriving custom picture framing and art materials business.

Having been on the opposite end of the counter for some years he knew what he wanted as an artist namely professional help in selecting the right picture frame to enhance and compliment his artwork and of course as is the case for most “struggling artists”, help in keeping the costs down.

When formulating his prices he paid no attention to “the going rate” and simply worked out his costs and added what he considered to be a fair margin. What resulted was a revolution in the cost of framing, which until then had always been extremely expensive.

Through word of mouth a substantial portion of the professional and semi professional artists in New South Wales heard of this quality picture framer which not only could offer a fresh look to the way pictures were framed but halved framing costs which were a substantial portion of the cost of a painting.

Until this day very little has needed to be done in the way of advertising thanks to customer recommendation and the business now employs over 40 people in its retail and wholesale operations.

Another innovation by Henry was to make The Art Scene a one stop shop for artists and in 1980 he introduced a full range of artist materials into the store (still in its present site today but expanding each year down the street) so that all the artists shopping needs from frames, paints brushes and canvases could be done at the one time and in the one place.

In 1995 The Art Scene completed its first 240-page full colour catalogue to showcase over 13,000 product lines and provide artists with a reference to all art materials available in Australia. This has been updated and republished every year since and remains one of the leading sources of Art Supplies in Australia today!

Since the first catalogue The Art Scene has substantially grown it’s mail order business and now sells Australia wide with significant orders being exported to countries such as England, USA and Asia.

We hope to enhance this with this full online shopping site and in the year to come we will endeavour to make this a one stop shop for all artist’s requirements with a wealth of information on products and their uses, as well as links to related sites and profiles on leading and up and coming Australian artists.

We at The Art Scene are committed to keeping up to date with latest innovations in framing and art materials and we specialise in Archival quality framing as well as stocking the world’s leading brands of Artists’ Materials, which are permanent and long lasting.

Our aim is to develop the depth of talent in Australia so that we can become a leading nation in Art. In 1999 we successfully ran the first Art Scene Art Award, which offered a prize, valued at $10,000 to the successful entrant. There were no restrictions on subject matter or medium and the competition attracted thousands of entries from all over Australia.

In years to come we intend on making this one of Australia’s premier Art Awards.

Thank you for visiting our site and we look forward to your suggestions as to how we can serve you better.