Taxation!

After our recent meeting I had made an appointment to visit the solicitor who helped us set up the Trust in the first place - Stephen Parr of Woodcocks, Haslingden. We like his clear and straightforward manner.  

The tax position needed clarifying for us. When the Trust was first established there was such a lot of information to take in that, although Stephen outlined the tax situation to us, it seemed a very distant concern at that time. Now, after the Dave Pearson Trust has been selling his work for 18 months, it needed to be looked at in detail and we had to make certain that we were operating correctly. 

Stephen outlined the need to register with the Inland Revenue and the situation with regard to Inheritance Tax, VAT,  Income and Capital Gains Taxes. Margaret and I came out of the meeting pleased that we hadn't left it any later to consult him. We're now waiting for the notes of the meeting to be sent to us by Woodcocks, and then to decide how we'll deal with things as they stand. Fortunately, the situation is easily manageable and the solicitor will be able to deal with any declarations on our behalf. 

Moving along

The Trust - Margaret Mytton, Chris Pearson and I - met last week, and reviewed our position. We confirmed that we would commission a film from Derek Smith; we agreed to visit a solicitor to check on our tax situation and a few other legal questions that have arisen; and we also agreed that we would meet with Julian and Jackie of the See gallery to look at ways we could work more closely together. 

Since then Derek has lost no time, and is currently back in Rossendale conducting a series of interviews with friends, and others who know Dave's work, as a way of working gently into the business of film-making. 

I've continued to sell work, but I'm now extremely aware of the need to keep important pieces back. I've also had a day of cataloguing (i.e. entering pieces into the Artlook catalogue) and we are now approaching having catalogued a thousand pieces. Of course, given Dave's phenomenal productivity, this still only scratches the bottom of the pile. Finally, the catalogue had now been moved onto a Macbook so the whole thing can be easily taken up to the studio for comparisons and in order to make the process of cataloguing generally more efficient. 

A film is commissioned

Two more of the newly discovered slides - a picture of the Potato Eaters (seen in the exhibition shot below), and a close up of their table. 

Yesterday we met to discuss the idea of a film about Dave with Derek Smith, and agreed to commission a film by Derek about Dave's work and, to some extent, his life. 

Derek has recently completed the film "An Exile in Paradise: The Adventures of Edward Lear in Greece and Albania" which won the Arts Silver World Medal at the 2009 New York Festivals International Television Programming and Promotion Awards, and this film has been shown on Sky Arts. The production company's website says 'Derek Smith has made many documentary series for Independent Television and the BBC. He won the first BP Arts Award for a film about Franz Liszt, a clutch of medals at the New York TV and Film Festival and Royal Television Society Awards for his regional work. He has made portraits of figures as diverse as Lucian Freud, John Tavener and The Dalai Lama.' 

Derek came to one of Dave's exhibitions at the See Gallery and then visited the studio. He was immediately excited about the possibilities of a film about Dave and we, in turn, instinctively felt that Derek would be the right person to make such a film.  Our hope is that we will have a finished film, of about an hour in length, ready for release for Easter 2011.