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He had been given a whole morning off school to watch
his paintings being sold.
As it turned out, it took only ten minutes and 50 seconds for every one
of Kieron Williamson’s distinctive landscapes to be snapped up – earning
the excited nine-year-old an impressive £106,260.
The boy known as Mini Monet beamed as buyers from around the world
queued to be first in line when his watercolours, pastels and oils went
on sale at a Norfolk gallery at 9am.
Collectors from as far as China and the U.S. jammed the gallery’s phone
lines in the race to secure a work from Kieron’s fifth exhibition.
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The little boy who loves football almost as much as art has become an
international sensation since he started painting landscapes on a family
holiday in Devon and Cornwall in 2008.
His last major exhibition of 33 paintings sold for £150,000 in 30
minutes in July last year and he sold two paintings for £21,000 each the
following month.
Kieron lived with his family in a rented flat next to a petrol station
before using his earnings to buy a £150,000 home in the Norfolk Broads
village of Ludham.
Yesterday afternoon he was back at school with his classmates after
buyers paid anything from £1,250 for his Norfolk sunset view to £15,595
for his impression of the Suleymaniye mosque in Istanbul.
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Kieron said he would celebrate his success with a Chinese takeaway for
his parents Keith, 45, and Michelle, 38, and sister Billie-Jo, seven.
‘I still paint every day – but I like football as well,’ he said. ‘I
think these paintings are my best yet.’
His father said: ‘I am amazed at how well his pictures have sold today.
We are so grateful to everyone who has supported Kieron, especially in
the current economic climate.
‘He is still a normal boy who loves his football.
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‘He goes to school every day in his shorts and comes home covered in
mud.’
Adrian Hill, managing director of the Picturecraft gallery in Holt which
organised the sale, said the speed of the purchases was remarkable.
‘When our doors opened it was pandemonium in here,’ he said.
‘You see this continual maturity and evolution in Kieron’s paintings.
His work is constantly improving and the more he paints, the more he
understands his medium.’ |
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