The taxman cometh

On return from holiday (hence the gap in these blog entries) I found a letter waiting for me from Woodcocks, our solicitor, and assumed it to be about the meeting we had last month to review the Trusts tax position. In fact events have overtaken us as Chris Pearson has been asked by HM Revenue and Customs to explain the gap between the nominal value inserted in the probate papers against the value reported in the media of Dave's estate. Go back a few months and we had frankly ridiculous and inflated reports in the press about the value of the work.

In the letter details were asked for about any meetings we had with probate valuers regards to valuation of the work that was left on Dave's death, and so on. This will mean going over things that happened two years ago; it's precisely the situation I wanted to avoid by talking with our solicitor last month.

Anyway, I'm certain that we have done all the right things, and correctly. One bonus is that we have this blog - documenting the process and the work we've put in to develop Dave's reputation! 

But anyway,  for now there's another weeks holiday to have and then buckle down to sorting this out and, hopefully, satisfying the tax authorities. 

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.

Images from the Van Gogh period

A recently discovered set of slides from the late 1960s/early 1970s shows some of Dave Pearson's work from his Van Gogh period. Nearly all of this work has been lost either through deterioration of the papier-mache, or for lack of storage space. The top photograph above shows 'The Potato Eaters' and part of 'The Blue Reaper' in the foreground, probably at the Bede Gallery in Jarrow. The wall on the right is full of etchings and drypoints from this period and, fortunately, there are examples remaining of most of these. 

The central photograph is probably from the Liverpool Academy exhibition in the same year, 1970. The blue 'Vincents Hat' is visible, with 'Sunflowers' on the right and 'The Blue Reaper' again glimpsed through the doorway. At the bottom there's a close up of 'Vincent and the Blue Easel' from one of these shows  - the figure of Van Gogh being roughly life-size. 

Holding back work...

After the Reveal Open Studios weekend we were expecting a visit yesterday from BBC Radio 4 Front Row, but that got postponed at short notice. Instead Margaret and I met up at 54 and used the opportunity to review where we are with things. 

A lot has been achieved in less than two years, but having rescued the work and the studio many of the the fundamental questions and issues about the Estate remain. In particular how are we going to increase awareness of Dave Pearson's work and get to see it represented more widely in collections? Up to now we have been selling work at what we consider to be low prices in order to raise enough money to sustain our work, but we now have sufficient funds to look after the storage and building for the immediate future as well as commission a film about Dave. 

We started by deciding to put more work aside, to 'ring-fence' it from immediate sales. The criteria will be 

• important pieces in Dave's development; 
• exceptional pieces that would currently be ludicrously under-priced; 
• typical examples from his main series of works, especially those in short supply. 

So, for example we've decided to hold back the remaining 40 self-portraits on canvas. We will also soon look at the relief paintings and some of the series of works on paper. We've already been through this process with the 'In the 7 Woods' pencil series (see above for an example) and held back perhaps 30% of the drawings. We've done it for the large prints too. Eventually we'll do this for all of the work... 

As Trustees of the Estate we have a duty to the mission of the Trust, which is (in short) protecting the work and enhancing Dave Pearson's reputation as an artist. We also have a duty to Chris Pearson who made over the work to the Trust (he remains a Trustee) to manage the sales of the work sensibly, and we recognise that it would be foolish to sell pieces at this stage that may well be significantly more valuable in future. It's all about striking the right balance of course, and we need to get the balance right between getting some income in now and making certain that the legacy is properly protected.

Reveal

We had over 120 visitors at the weekend; most of them staying about an hour exploring Dave's old studio. So most of the time it was busy and buzzing with chat and enthusiasm. This was a good number as it meant Margaret or I were able to speak individually with just about everyone who came through our door to explain a little about who Dave was; why the studio in Haslingden was there; and what our plans were. Several people had even made the journey from London to Haslingden specially in order to visit us. 

I got out for short period and visited two of the other studios in the Valley, but run out of time to see more. I think this was typical of most of the artists involved - so busy with their own studios that they didn't have the time to see what us others were up to. The feedback was that the weekend was a great success, although the See gallery had far fewer visitors than the studios, possibly as a result of people deciding that they would focus on visiting those venues that weren't normally open to the public. 

At 54 Manchester Road we also managed to sell 6 pieces of work, and there several people who took my details so they could arrange another visit in order to buy at a later date. There was a really enthusiastic response from almost everyone - a good weekend, and many thanks to Susan, Barbara, Dave, Steve, Kay and Anne who helped us out.