A chat with Ronnie Wood on the phone from London was supposed to be restricted to his moonlighting career as a painter and help promote his exhibition at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Museum (Jan. 7-19) featuring lithographs, silk screens, sketches and canvases. His best-known works are his portraits of rock stars.

But the talk soon turned to rock. This is, after all, one of the key guitarists in the history of modern British music. Wood played bass in the Jeff Beck Group in the 1960’s, was a founding member (with Rod Stewart) of the great ramshackle, booze-soaked rock outfit the Faces, and for the past 27 years, has been a card-carrying member of the Rolling Stones.

But this by Wood, who studied a the Ealing College of Art in London before becoming a professional musician continues to paint while on tour. He has tried his hand at a number of different media, producing oil paintings, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and drypoints, and the range of his output has included landscapes and large-scale murals.

est-known work continues to be his portraits. His well-crafted accessible portraits have included his takes on Keith Moon, Chuck Berry and Jim Morrison, along with various Rolling Stones. Wood said it isn’t easy painting the Stones.