Ring the bells, the first of the long-awaited Art Series Hotels has arrived. The Cullen, in trendy Prahran, Melbourne, is five star luxury with a twist: each room is plastered with prints and art inspired books. Dripping with artist Adam Cullen’s work, The Cullen offers the opportinity to experience the Art of Living Fearlessly. It’s the first in a series of Art Series Hotels, which will include The Blackman and The Olsen.

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Melbourne illustrator Rik Lee creates images as if they were a delicate easter egg. Faces, animals, bikes — they’re all rendered with the same light touch, with some interesting juxtapositions with the pastel smeared throughout, like make-up after a night on the town.

Beautiful, pretty, divine, lavish, vivid. These are the words you will find your mind spinning towards as you stroll through the Lounge Kat world. Kate McInnes is the mistress behind the wonderful illustrations, which will have any otaku drooling like a Pavlovian creature. Combined like the text from twisted poetry, her recent collaborations with fellow Melbourne artist Bucket ‘o’ Thought are sure to inspire.

I love the sense of imperfect realism about the illustrations of Melbourne-based artist Nom Kinnearking.

Melbourne-based illustrator Sarah Beetson has her second solo exhibition opening on June 6th, featuring Australia’s first Art Vending machine. 50 Bucks: Bring On The Sluts is a collection of 500 moleskine-sized artworks which will be priced at $50 each. Those interested in buying one will be able to make their purchase through a donated Pepsi vending machine, which will be dispensing the artworks in a ‘message in a bottle’ fashion. Should be fun.

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Melbourne-based artist Melissa Haslam has just released her first limited edition giclee print called Sleepy Pink Birds. She originally studied a degree in Multimedia Technology and then worked at a software company creating graphics for the user manuals and user interfaces: ‘After a few years, I felt like I needed to work on my own ideas, and explore more traditional media, so I left work to study a diploma of Visual Arts. I’ve found the blend of computer skills with traditional skills gives me amazing flexibility. For many of my oil paintings, I scan my drawings and do some of the composition and preliminary work on the computer’.

Working out of Melbourne, illustrator Benjamin Johnson’s work was published in a recent collection of the 200 best illustrators worldwide. He is also been featured in Rolling Stone magazine, Lonely Planet and Lothian Books, amongst others.