New artists on the block: Colourful canvas of opportunity

A certain degree of luck is required to make substantial returns from investing in works by lesser-known and new artists. But investors with a canny eye for spotting budding talent can net themselves big gains.

These young artists have seen large increases in the value of their work.

● Josie McCoy. A St Martins graduate whose paintings make celebrities and movie stars such as Kate Moss and Audrey Tatou look like porcelain dolls. Her works have appreciated in value over the last decade from an average price of £250 to £2,500.

● Nathan James. Inspired by trashy television and vintage photography, James employs standard painting, stenciling and silk-screen printing to create his canvases. In 2002, one of his 6x4 foot collage-style paintings was priced at just $500, but it now sells for $25,000 – a 4,900 per cent increase.

● Dan McDermott. Oil paintings by this University of Northumbria at Newcastle graduate have proved to be wildly popular online and now sell for up to £10,000 – 20 times more than they did in 1995. The images he creates resemble blurred photographs which he says “trigger memories”.

● Keren Luchtenstein. A favourite artist of the fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, she enjoys painting shoes and other objects that she owns, believing they can act as “charms and talismans”. ‘Crybabies’ – her oil painting of a pair of baby dolls – now costs £2,770, an increase of 260 per cent in just three years.