THE KID ARTIST

Most of the artists become famous in their later years. Some even became famous after they die. But that is not the situation with Kieron Williamson. He is Britain’s most famous young artist who became very famous when he was only eight years old. During his first exhibition, all 33 of the pastels, watercolours, and oil paintings were sold in just half an hour. There were buyers from all over the world who lined up outside the gallery just to see his work and he earned a total of $235,000 from that exhibition. His paintings have always been very expensive and there is a long waiting list for his new paintings. At the age of 12 he was already a millionaire.

When he gave his first interview to a newspaper, he was asked what he thought about art and Kieron said “Cows are the easiest thing to paint because I don’t have to worry about doing so much detail. Horses are more difficult. You have to get their legs right, and you have to make their back legs bigger than their front.”

His paintings have changed a lot since then. He abandoned the pastels and replaced them with oils paintings. He uses a palette knife and smart techniques such as scoring winter branches with a cocktail stick on his oils.

Kieron often rushes outside to watch a sunset in his pyjamas or asks his parents Keith and Michelle to take him to streams or simple fields he has spotted from the car. His face lights up when he describes taking photos after a storm recently and seeing a fox. “The whole sky glowed yellow and there was a rainbow and you could see both ends of it. Then I saw two deer running out of a field and a fox came out after them” Kieron says. His mother says they are having a difficult time understanding him, as they are not able to see the world with his eyes. “For us it was just a fox and a deer,” says Michelle. Their parents quit their jobs to take care of Kieron’s businesses. His mother Michelle is the director of Kieron’s company, which was set up in 2010. She tries to ensure that Kieron’s fortune is held in trust for when he comes of age. His father Keith used to be an art dealer. Now he buys and sells art for Kieron’s company. To have both parents employed by their own son sounds challenging. “We worry constantly about people’s opinions and judgements,” admits Michelle. “A lot of people have a problem with the fact that Kieron is the one who brings money home.” Kieron doesn’t see that as a problem. He says that they are a family and that is all that matters.