A PICTURE can paint a thousand words about business. That's the message from gallery owners who believe passionately that high quality corporate art makes a difference to the bottom line.

Debi and Norman Wilkinson claim that "crappy prints" do nothing to impress customers or staff. Debi, a former project manager with the defunct South London Training and Enterprise Council (SOLOTEC), and Norman, who is keeping his day job with computer giant IBM until art pays all the bills, set up Salamander Galleries two years ago.

They chose The Green, Westerham, because it offered the most suitable premises in the right location, The town is already home to several antique shops. Customers for tasteful niche products are regular visitors, although the Wilkinsons say there has been a slowdown since September 11.

But despite some economic uncertainty, they remain ambitious to expand to other areas, with Canterbury high up their gallery hit list.

"Canterbury would be a great place because the throughput of people is far higher than in Westerham," said Norman.

Salamander specialises in original modern art, providing a brightly-lit and inviting outlet for leading artists on a sale or return basis. They include Aggy Boshoff, David Hodges, Adam Green and Kate Saqui. Rik Mayall has commissioned some of Adam Green's work. Apart from paintings, Salamander also stocks jewellery, porcelain, glass and sculpture.

"It's very difficult to find something like this outside London," says Debi. "We wanted to put together London gallery quality but on an affordable basis," adds Norman. "I think it has filled a gap."

The Wilkinsons are targeting small and medium sized enterprises as well as larger companies. Norman said: "We have a mission to take budget prints off their walls and put some decent art on them instead."

He claims that some firms refurbish their offices for thousands of pounds "and then put the same old crappy stuff back on the wall."

Norman said: "If you've got decent pieces of original art, it says a lot about the company, that they're bothered about their people and image. It's a PR thing, it's marketing, it is making their company look better to customers. And if you make a place look good, you get more out of your employees."

The Wilkinsons not only sell works of art, they also advise companies on what goes best where. As consultants, they choose paintings to suit a décor or an environment, tailoring the chosen art to a budget.

So how much could it cost? Norman says that three or four good paintings would set a company back no more than £5,000, possibly less.

But he makes no promises about future value. Some artists become "hot" while others disappear. "It's very difficult to sell art in terms of investment, especially with unknown artists," he said.

"It may be that some of our artists become famous years down the line and works become very valuable but we can't guarantee that."