During the course of my job, I am privileged to be invited to view a wide selection of paintings. A recurring theme during my visits to clients is professional insurance valuations which have not kept pace with current market trends.

The only certain way to avoid falling into the trap of being either over or under insured is to have your paintings inspected regularly, which I suggest should be every seven to 10 years.

A large proportion of paintings, are over-valued for the current market, particularly if the most recent valuation was carried out between 1980 and 2000.

The past is playing a great influence on current collecting trends, for example coal mining and the old industries, such as ship building, Artists such as Brian Shields “Braaq” who depicted the working class environment of his home city. that sold for £4,000-£10,000 between 2003-’11, are now fetching £45,000-£50,000 at auction and can be found in galleries, prestigious Contemporary Art Fairs and fashionable London art departments at £65,000-£80,000.

There are other painters to look out for, for example Jonathan Armigel Wade, who was born in 1960. He paints in a very individual style, depicting a distorted image. Extremely well painted and intriguing, they currently realise figures in the high hundreds and low thousands and there is certain to be upward movement in terms of value and appeal