Look out for the `rising stars' of art world

A new guide book to the Irish art market is about to roll off the presses. A Buyers Guide to Irish Art (Ashville Media Group, £29), to be published on December 7th, tracks the prices paid for the work of around 700 Irish artists, both here and in the UK, over the past five years.

Compiled by Roberta Reeners with the full co-operation of the top auction houses, it should be a valuable source of reference, both for the industry and for would-be investors who want to find out where a painting has come from and how much it should be worth.

It is an attractively bound hardback with a foreword by Dorothy Walker, and offers some advice on building an art collection. The bulk of the book is a dense listings of names, dates and prices, and in the case of almost every single artist prices have been on an upward trend since the mid-1990s.

There is also an interesting list of 20 "rising stars" in the art market. These were shortlisted from hundreds of names suggested by art experts and should be of interest to younger collectors or anyone who feels that the established stars are beyond their price range. Paul Kelly, June Brilly and Clea van der Grijn are just three names to watch out for, according to the list.