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.
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