Prodigious Prodigies

So far there have been very few professional artists born in this century.  There's probably a good reason for that.  This is 2010.  They'd be, at most, ten years old about now.  There is one, however, I came across recently.  His name is Kieron Williamson and actually, he's only eight, but who's counting.  Born in 2002, he lives in Holt, Norfolk, England with his parents and sister. Recently, 33 of his paintings sold  for 150,000 pounds ($235,000).  That was his second show.  The first, the year before, featured 16 paintings which brought only 18,000 pounds. Beyond that, there's a waiting list of more than 3,000 others anxious to nab one of his watercolors.  Now, if you're expecting a reincarnated Picasso or Kandinsky indiscriminately just slopping paint around, think again.  If one had to name an artist from a previous life, you'd tend toward Monet or Pissarro.

Kieron paints cows...and horses, snow-covered meadows, streetscapes, virtually any locale to which he's been exposed.  Art doesn't run in his family, though his father is  a 44-year-old art dealer.  His mother is a nutritional therapist.  His sister is a six-year-old. Not surprisingly the blond-headed boy wants to be an artist when he grows up.  Actually, he's been something of an artist ever since he was five, gradually growing into his prodigy standing as his work has "matured" over the years.  He also likes soccer and kicking around the beach in his free time.

Though younger than most, Kieron is representative of a long list of child art prodigies.  Many flame out before puberty, their notoriety as much attributable to their age as their art.  But then there have been the Picassos, the Leonardos, the Michelangelos, the Rockwells, the O'Keefes (meaning those of their ilk) who started young and ended old--prodigies who went on to produce art prodigiously.  And what abut Kieron Williamson?  Well, remember that name,  I'll get back to you  in twenty years.