Rolling Stone's Ronnie Wood makes fine art debut
by Mike Common. Published Wed 19 Oct 2011 13:24, Last updated: 2011-10-27
Ronnie Wood is making his debut into the world of fine art this month, with a selection of his own works being unveiled in retail art galleries across the country. Locally, Wood’s work will be on offer, for those able to afford the price tag, in Liverpool at Wall to Wall within The Home Quarter on Hanover Street from Saturday the 22nd of October.
Entitled ‘The Famous Flame Suite’, Wood’s first set of limited edition art works are sure to stoke the fire in the bellies of both art critics and music fans. His flame filled portrayals of fellow Rolling Stones bring together the two artistic worlds that dominate Wood’s personality combining his love of painting with his well established musical legacy. While ‘The Stones on Stage - Got Me Rockin’, sticks with the same theme, it chooses to focus in on the Stone’s on stage action with leading man, the legendary peacock strutter, Mick Jagger doing his thing up front.
Wood is no novice, having first started painting at the tender age of 12, he was trained at Ealing College of Art, before embarking on his meteoritical music career starting with the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces and then finally The Rolling Stones.
Glyn Washington, managing director of Washington Green Fine Art says, “He picked up a paintbrush way before he picked up a guitar and began his life long journey with art almost as soon as he could hold a pencil. This innate artistic pulse that ran through Wood’s veins and was first refined and honed at art college; evolved and grew into a five decade love affair with canvas, which has seen Wood constantly seeking, evolving and pushing back the boundaries in his art.”
Wood says, “when I get inspired I get almost possessed and I just have to paint.” Unsurprisingly his studio in London’s east end and his homes in London and Ireland are said to be filled with ‘works in progress’. Wood says, “There is no kind of therapy like the one you have from starting and seeing a picture through to the end."
Ronnie counts Schiele, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, William Orpen and Pablo Picasso amoung his influences and they have obviously served him well as his art has won numerous fans, with former US President Bill Clinton one of several well known collectors of his original art works. The Rolling Stone has also received critical acclaim with his solo exhibitions around the world from North and South America, to the Far East and throughout Europe.
