Backstage Pass To The Ronnie Wood Exhibit!

Over the next few months I have various celebrity art openings to attend and I hope to blog about each one in turn.

To kick this little section of my blog off, comes with someone and a band very near and dear to my heart.

Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.

I was able to attend a special showing to the Ronnie Wood art exhibit in association with the Castle Gallery here in Manchester.

Art is something not new to Ronnie and apparently, though he is best known as lead guitarist for the Faces and the Stones, you're as likely to find him sketching as with guitar in hand.

Ronnie was born in Middlesex in 1947.

He grew up surrounded by music of the great jazz legends and was strongly influenced by his dad, who was a jazz musician.

At the age of nine, he picked up playing washboard with his brother in their skiffle band!

Ronnie went to Ealing College of Art, and has continued painting, drawing and printmaking for over 35 years.

Throughout his musical career – first as a member of the Jeff Beck Group, then the Faces, and since 1975 the Rolling Stones – Ronnie has continued painting and drawing, his subjects ranging from self-portraits, to musicians, to family and close friends.

Ronnie Wood has used many mediums to capture legendary Rock n' Roll, Pop and rhythm & Blues performers which include Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Madonna – all people he admires.

The portraits, featured in this exhibition were his fellow Rolling Stones band mates.

This solo exhibition has also been held in New York, Las Vegas and Tokyo, as well as retrospectives at the Modern Art Museum in Sao Paulo and the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.

He builds limited edition silk screen prints in much the same way as working in the studio with overdubbing; you find the more defined ones are the things that stand out as the viewer.

Ronnie has even implied this himself as to when he is creating his art and it is certainly something which shines through as you stand in front of his art.

As a viewer we were given a very elegant A4 sized program reminiscent of a tour program which introduced us to who Ronnie Wood is and filled with interviews and comments about his art and his feelings on certain pieces and as to why he created them.

It focuses solely on his THE FAMOUS FLAMES project, glorious Stones inspired pieces set into a back drop of flames with names such as Rip This Joint, Wah Wah and Got Me Rockin’.

Alongside the program was a matching price list, prices start at £795 for heavy weight giclees print to larger framed box canvases for £10,250.

 

There is a choice of Ronnie Wood display items that can be added to an order from presentation wallets and frames, which all have the classy slick black look with Ronnie Wood signature logo.

If I was a richer lady, I would be sure to hang one of these on my wall!

 

I came out impressed and inspired and it made me kick out the jams with the album Some Girls for journey home!...

Next UP! The legendary Bobby Dylan!