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14 years old and worth £2m: meet Norfolk's 'mini Monet'
When 14-year-old Kieron Williamson has an after-school kickabout with friends in their village of Ludham, Norfolk, chatter is strictly limited to the game at hand. But off the pitch, the teenager has less in common with his peers – dubbed the ‘mini Monet,’ Williamson, whose art was first exhibited when he was six , is now worth £2m.
“One night, he was just an ordinary little boy, and then he was thrown into the spotlight,” remembers his dad, Keith. “Everything just went mad.”
After being given a sketchbook during a family holiday to Cornwall, Williamson, then five, borrowed a clutch of colouring pencils from his sister and set to work. “I’d never drawn anything before,” he says, “but I fell in love with it straight away.” Soon afterwards, his canvases were allotted a small space at a local gallery – and “it all went from there. I wasn’t meant to sell any of my work – this was just something I enjoyed doing,” he says. “I was amazed that people wanted to buy it.”
If the shock of his success loomed large, then, being worth millions by the time puberty approached multiplied it tenfold. The teen’s net worth is “crazy”, Keith admits. “We found it really, really weird at first, but in spite of all the money he’s got, he’s not interested in buying anything – he doesn’t own any computer games. He’s just happy with his football, and listening to music while he paints.”
And what melodies inspire the so-called Master-in-the-making? “The Housemartins and the Beautiful South – I like chilled music,” Williamson says. They certainly help to alleviate the stress of the youngster’s off days, “which can get really bad. Sometimes I can spend all day trying to make a picture work and it never does – if that happens, I’ll throw it away, go for a walk to clear my mind and return hoping something great will appear on the canvas.
“It often needs to get worse before it can get better.”
The key, Williamson believes, is persistence: he creates hundreds of pieces each year (though only two are displayed in the family home), and “I do put pressure on myself to keep up my standards.”
It must have been hard, I venture, to grow up in the public eye considering the scrutiny that goes along with it: not only are his works examined under a microscope by naysayers, but his parents’ management of his fortune have come under fire, too.
“It’s a big legal and ethical nightmare,” his mother Michelle said of dealing with her son’s vast earnings. “People looking at his success only ever see the money and think it's all fun; they don't think about the balance we have to create in his life.
“We have to ensure Kieron is protected from exploitation and the legal system has to ensure we, as parents, are doing the right thing for him.” Whatever they're doing, it seems to be working: buyers from China, Canada and beyond rush to snap up his art, which often sells out in minutes.
Though he remains is a “placid” child, according to his father, Williamson is certainly more vocal than he was as the monosyllabic seven-year-old pictured in newspapers around the world grinning in front of his artworks (fodder his sister Billie-Jo, 12, uses to tease him about how “cute” he used to be); he is frustrated by the lack of encouragement for children to explore their creativity. “At school, there’s things like potato printing, which are fine, but for children who want to go further than that, there’s not enough encouragement or services for them.
“We need more community art groups and to get people to paint outside – that’s the best way to learn, and getting in touch with local artists can also help people progress.”
As for Williamson’s own future, prospects look pretty good – though he does sometimes entertain himself with thoughts of what he might have pursued had he never picked up a paintbrush: “either football, running or cycling – Bradley Wiggins is a legend,” he chuckles. He still cycles some 20 or 30 miles a day while on holiday in Cornwall - the family are planning to move there as it is the area in which Willamson finds himself most inspired.
His hopes for the future are, simply, “to keep painting;” Keith’s are a little more ambitious. “I’d like him to be remembered as one of the greats,” he muses. “I’ll never see that in my time, but I hope he sees it in his.”
The Making of a Master is on BBC One East on Friday 9th September at 7:30pm