Mini Monet is now a 6ft Man-et (who makes loads of money!)
HE WAS dubbed Mini Monet when, aged just six, his first 19 paintings sold at auction for £14,000.
Ten years on and Kieron Williamson is not so ‘mini’ any more, having grown into a strapping six-footer with a formidable bank balance.
He has made more than £3 million from the sale of his artwork, and buyers around the world are clamouring more than ever to buy his distinctive landscapes and portraits.
Kieron’s most expensive piece – an oil painting of a Norfolk farming scene – sold in 2017 for £55,000.
But he insists he is ‘not bothered’ about his fortune and is happy to carry on painting because he loves it so much.
‘I can’t believe how my career is continuing. I never expected it to
‘I never expected my career to go on like this’
carry on like this,’ he said. ‘I am still loving my painting and I really enjoy it. I have got better technically. The more you do something, the better you get because you learn from your mistakes. I can always see stuff I like to change when I am painting.’
Kieron pays all his earnings into a company which had assets of more than £1.5million, according to its last accounts filed at Companies House. He has used his money to buy a five-bedroom house in Port Isaac, Cornwall, a three-bedroom house in Ludham on the Norfolk Broads and another home which he jointly owns with his parents, near North Walsham, Norfolk.
The teenager has also built up his own collection of art, buying paintings by famous artists including his favourite Edward Seago, a fellow son of Norfolk.
Kieron, who has been home educated so he can concentrate on his painting, has previously said of his work: ‘I don’t sell my soul, I paint what fires me up. If my heart isn’t in it, I don’t do it.’ He is currently staging the tenth annual exhibition of his work, called Six To Sixteen, at the Picturecraft gallery in Holt, Norfolk, where his talent was first discovered.
The show features 51 pictures priced from £4,000 up to £45,000 for a 40 inch by 30 inch view of St Mark’s Square in Venice which he completed after visiting the Italian city earlier this year on his first ever trip abroad.
Buyers from across Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States bought 32 of the paintings even before the exhibition opened yesterday.
Kieron’s latest batch of oils, pastels and watercolours include landscapes in Norfolk and Cornwall, and portraits of fishermen and farm workers.
His father Keith Williamson, 53, who works as an art dealer, estimated that his son’s lifetime earnings have topped £3million.
He said: ‘Kieron is just a normal lad. He has loads of friends and loves football and swimming as well as painting almost every day.’ Adrian Hill, the owner of the Picturecraft Gallery where Kieron’s exhibition runs until July 17, said: ‘He has achieved a refinement with his studio pieces becoming more polished.
‘His work on location is also full of life as he has developed an immediacy to what he does. It is mesmerising to see his progress over the years. His work is so magical. You can see each year that it moves on.
‘The demand for his work is very high, as it has been from day one. We have around 13,000 people on his mailing list.’