‘Mini Monet’: Boy sells paintings for $ 235,803

Collectors are snapping up his works: The next Picasso?:

Kieron Williamson turns 8; it’s a benchmark to be celebrated with family and friends. But outside of his family circle in the tiny British market town of Holt, the art world is celebrating Kieron’s startling proficiency with water colors, pastels and oils.

London’s Daily Mail dubbed Kieron “Mini Monet” after Kieron raked in $235,804 (150,000 British pounds) at a gallery show in his hometown, where all 33 of the works exhibited sold in under a half hour.

Adrian Hill, co-owner of the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt where the sale was conducted, says the name Picasso springs to mind when it comes to the artistic prodigy. “He is red-hot,” Hill told the Daily Mail. “I believe the last child artist in this bracket was Picasso. And Kieron is getting better and better and better. He has a very mature hand and has mastered certain techniques at an early stage which some artists would take years to perfect.”

Sudden inspiration at 5

Kieron’s folks Keith and Michelle say in most respects, Kieron is your typical youth: He enjoys swimming and fishing and playing computer games, and loves nothing so much as kicking a soccer ball around with his schoolmates. And when it comes to his artistic bent, Michelle Williamson told NBC News that for years, Kieron also drew like any other young child. “We used to have to draw dinosaurs for him to color in.” That all changed on a family vacation to Devon and Cornwall in May 2008. Inspired by the scenery, he asked his parents for paper so he could copy what he saw.

“First pictures that he did were what any 5-year-old would do,” Michelle told NBC.

“It was the time, and level of concentration that he put into doing it; that was the turning point. It was like a switch. We never thought he would continue drawing after the holiday. He just improved.”

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