IT IS an unusual claim to fame. ''I've sold more pictures in

wellington boots than anyone else in the country!'' says Alastair Kerr,

who ran the Inverbeg Galleries on Loch Lomond for almost 40 years,

introducing thousands of tourists and passers-by to art.

He began by hanging oil paintings in his pub. Gradually the pictures

took over. In 1970 he built a gallery on to the pub and and turned his

hobby into a profession. ''I took a chance but it paid off. I also had a

lot of fun. It's the nicest business you could be in,'' he says. ''You

make so many friends and meet lots of nice people. Folk come from all

over to see us: they motor up from England; even visit from America.''

Now, having suffered from myalgic encephalomyelitis for some years,

he's decided to retire, handing the gallery over to friends who

themselves bought their first landscape oil from Kerr.

Kerr didn't just popularise paintings. In the early 1960s he set up

Kerprints, a Fine Art publishing company. It was an untapped market, but

Kerr's original motivation was altruism. ''I felt Scottish art was

unfairly neglected through lack of reproduction. I didn't see why the

work should not be readily available. Scottish students were not well

versed in Scottish painting -- they knew more about Monet! Even museum

people were disinterested. I was embarrassed by my own enthusiasm but I

persevered.''

He went on to publish 300 images including delightful pictures by

Glasgow Boys Hornel, Henry, Lavery and Crawhall; the Colourists Peploe,

Cadell and Fergusson; McTaggart, Horatio McCulloch and the Faeds. ''I

was the first to venture into good Scottish reproductions. I'm quite

proud of that. It was high risk. It's hard to tell what will sell and

our marketing wasn't up to much, but Kerprints gave me great

satisfaction. Quitting the print side was more of a wrench than leaving

the gallery,'' he admits.

The first picture he ever bought is now also a print: Paolo Tarbardi's

Boy With Hat and Box. It cost ''all of #16. I soon realised how cheap

original paintings were. It was shocking. In the 1950s they were going

for nothing. You could go into Corrigan's in Paisley's Causewayside with

#10 and come out with three pictures. James Kay watercolours were #3 and

an exceptional oil #30. But Hornels and Peploes always made money.'' How

much? ''Oh about #40 to #60.''

Kerr has a vivid memory, especially for the pictures that got away.

''I remember losing a magnificent Oppenheimer of Kirkcudbright In the

Snow and a William Wells Goose Girl. McNicol the dealer outbid me.''

Then there's the inevitable mistakes. ''I paid #150 for three oils. One

later sold in London for #50,000. Of course I'd kept the wrong one!''

Today Kerprints include successful contemporaries like Tom Shanks and

James Orr, but sometimes publishing has helped put a little-known artist

on the map. In old age David Stratton Watt became very popular after

Kerr's publication of his snowy scene, Curling on Lochan-Na-Gael.

Alistair Kerr has come a long way since he began transporting bundles

of pictures in an old Morris van with the doors tied up with string. But

his enthusiasm and missionary zeal is undimmed. He strongly believes

that the younger you introduce folk to art the better. ''Children are

under-rated. I get parents who want to fob them off with pretty

'kiddies' pictures. I find they often prefer Constable!''

As I left he urged: ''Keep your article modest. I don't want any

blowing of trumpets.'' Then enthusiasm took over once more as he proudly

showed me his favourite Henderson seascapes and a superb Denovan

panorama. ''The father did the landscape and the son painted the cattle.

It's signed by both.'' His wife joked: ''We can't tell you what the last

picture in the collection is -- because I don't think he's finished

yet!''

TIP OF THE WEEK

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* LAST year Edinburgh's Collective Gallery in Cockburn Street had the

brainwave of inviting 400 artists, musicians and writers, including

famous names, to exhibit work in a perspex CD box -- thus keeping items

small, already framed and cheap. It was such a hit that it is repeating

the exercise this year from November 2, culminating in an auction on

Saturday, November 27 at 1 pm at the gallery conducted by Phillips. The

art work is serious stuff and often witty, clever and innovative into

the bargain. Give it a try.