Six-Year-Old Artist Amazes Art World

Proving that child prodigies are not relegated to the depths of history and to characters such as Mozart and da Vinci, a child of Holt in Norfolk England has been producing some stunning watercolors that have experts dumbstruck. The child, Keiron Williamson, has been described as a kid more interested in a bedtime picture book than a bedtime story but has only recently taken an interest in creating art himself. This all changed when Keiron went on holiday with his family to a waterfront town and he requested paper and art supplies to capture the memorable scene. A few art classes later and Keiron is on track to have his watercolors displayed in a local gallery at the age of only six years old.


The watercolors Keiron produces are primarily seascapes, landscapes and cityscapes and display a great deal of confidence in their conception. The child has an exceptional eye for perspective, light and shadows and has managed to render paintings that display a level of skill that would leave much older artists green with envy. His drawings are as sound as the astute color mixtures that he employs and have left his family, friends, and fellow art students in awe. His parents believe that this creative explosion is due in part to the fact that they currently live in a top floor apartment with no garden and little scenery. Keiron, they believe, has taken it upon himself to create his own scenery and is much more in tune with scenery than the average child.

Amazingly, Keiron is by no means the first child artist to make waves in recent media. Akiane Kramarik who hails from Mount Morris, Illinois and was born in 1994 has shown her art in nearly a dozen galleries and museums and found international fame through television and media. Her art has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in Time Magazine, drawing much attention to this adolescent artist. Her artwork consists of self-portraits, paintings of animals and cosmic scenes much in the style of Brett-Livingstone Strong. In 2004, a girl only four years of age named Marla Olmstead was featured on BBC News as having wowed the New York art world with paintings that were comparable to Kandinsky and Pollock. She was creating abstract works since she was two and by four years had sold 25 paintings for a total of $40,000. The parents of all of these talented children do not project too far into the future and seem to hope that their child decides to do whatever it is that makes them happy.

Budding Value
Instances such as these remind us that new art and new masters are emerging all the time. Some of the young artists of today are going to be the famous, sought after artists of tomorrow and are presently creating work that will serve as their foundation in the future. All artists leave a trail of seemingly forgotten but desired pieces that contributed to their most well known style, and many of these pieces are owned by unsuspecting people who may have kept them in storage for years. Pieces gifted by aunts, great uncles, or neighbors and sealed off in attics and basements for years may have accumulated value. There is no way for the naked eye to tell if a piece has value and the most responsible way to seek out answers about artwork such as this is to find a competent appraiser with years of experience and a dedication to detail and research. MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. has databases that span thousands of names and its researchers have seen almost every kind of forgotten treasure and would love to see yours. MIR Appraisal wants to help you discover the true nature of your forgotten treasures and help you preserve them for posterity.

Written and Researched by: Justin Bergquist

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser and Director: Farhad Radfar
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

Works Cited:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5940249/Six-year-old-artist-exhibits-paintings-at-gallery.html

http://www.gnn.com/article/six-year-old-artist-paints-like-adult/598115

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203226/Pictured-Incredible-watercolour-paintings-boy-aged-just-SIX.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3701484.stm

http://www.artakiane.com/home.html

Betty Beeby: Watercolorist, Muralist, Preservationist

The fine art and personal property appraisers at MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., are proud to have recently been able to examine and research many of the works by Michigan inhabitant, Betty Beeby, a prolific watercolorist, illustrator, muralist, writer and dedicated preservationist. Several of her works are showcased below:

Beeby depicts an artist’s studio within a domestic space, awash with light and color. Imbued with “joie de vivre,” the varied textile patterns, self-referential easel and displayed watercolors echo Henri Matisse’s sensibilities and approach. The exuberant yet pacific nature of the scene finds resonance with John Berger’s apt description of Matisse: “He clashed his colours together like cymbals and the effect was like a lullaby” (Berger 36).

This rather minimalist depiction of the relationship between subtly shaded slopes and dark water creates contrast through simplified forms and color.

The distilled forms and deep contrasts evident in this watercolor evoke the compositions of Katsushika Hokusai, as in The Dragon of Smoke Escaping From Mount Fuji. The peaks of the snowy cliff, suspended over a deeply colored body of water, create suspense and tension.

The still life shown above with fruit and porcelain is reminiscent of the watercolors of Andrew Wyeth in its striking effects of light and shadow, unusual perspective, and scrupulous, realistic detail.

Beeby received formal training at the Pratt Institute in New York, yet most of her life and oeuvre centers about the landscape and culture of her home state, Michigan. In 2008, she received the State History Award from the Historical Society of Michigan for Distinguished Volunteer Service, in appreciation of more than six decades of Beeby’s creative, philanthropic and preservationist contributions to Michigan.

Working in varied mediums, Beeby has served as staff artist for Time Life magazine, the Bahlman Art Studio and Sequoia Press, film strip artist for Captain Kangaroo on CBS, muralist for The Straits of Mackinac at the Michilimackinac Visitor Center (image featured above; the mural is recently restored) and cover art illustrator for Eardmans Publications Co. Her illustrations for Potawatomi Indian Summer, by E. William Oldenburg, Whistle Up the Bay, by Nancy Stone, and Just Josie—which she both authored and illustrated—received the Chicago Book Clinic Award for best printmaking in art.

Her discovery and preservation of several thousand historical letters and several dozen diaries stored in her family’s century-old barn led to a cluster of creative projects. Beeby’s book Breath Escaping Envelopes draws upon the content of this source material, as she conveys in her book the concerns of the women of Grand Traverse Bay during the turn-of-the-century. Beeby also created The Peterboro Letters, a series of nine lithographs depicting various locations mentioned in the historical letters. The lithographs, exhibited in a solo show at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, inspired composer Lynn Palmer to craft The Peterboro Suite. The original letters and diaries are now preserved for posterity in the Archives and Regional History Collections at Western Michigan University.

Beeby also directly collaborated with poet Terry Wooten on A Book of Hours, an offshoot of the Elders Project; Wooten composed verse from Beeby’s autobiographical storytelling, and Beeby illustrated the collection. Beeby’s additional contributions include funding for the annual Pearl in Hand Scholarship, awarded to high school seniors in Antrim or Charlevoix County.

Jessica Savitz
MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 814-8510

With an attitude of reverence and with supreme skill, the experts at MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. extensively research fine art and personal property, providing in-depth analysis and consultation for your most prized works of art.

Works Cited:

Berger, John. Selected Essays. New York: Pantheon, 2001.
Keenan, Marney Rich. “Artist Beeby Finds Inspiration in Regional History.” Detroit News. 1 Jul. 2008.
South, Carol. “Poet, Painter Combine Skills on Book.” Grand Traverse Herald. Aug. 12 2009.
http://torchlakeviews.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/betty-beebys-sturdy-stable-artists-fables/