Ronnie Wood, of the Rolling Stones, was born in 1947 in Middlesex, England, a descendent from a long line of Romany Boat people, into a musical and artistic family, His brothers, Art and Ted and later Ron too, would pass the time by drawing, thought by their dad, Arthur, Art, now a successful commercial artist comments, “Dad didn’t have any training but he had a natural fair for drawing." By the time Ron arrived drawing and painting were already a firmly established par of our family and our growing up.”

Amongst Ronnie’s earliest art memories, is seeing his mother painting crinoline ladies. On glass, and subtly hand tinting photographs all of which gave him the encouragement and enthusiasm to produce his won work, resulting in him winning a price for work he submitted to the after-school BBCTV show of the late ‘50’s and early 60’s Sketch Club.

Before embarking on a musical career, Ronnie received formal art training following his brothers to Ealing Collage of Art in London in scene which gave Ronnie the

Throughout the years, the artist and the musician have been inseparable. As his musical career progressed, Ronnie continued his passion of painting and drawing his subjects ranging from band members and musicians he admired knew sometimes played with, to family and close friends – and of the course the self-portrait. It is as natural to find him with a pencil as with a guitar, drawing portraits of contemporaries and finding inspiration from his musical influences.

He Says, “I draw people whenever I can” in the studio, in the control room – when I get a bit of time I just do a quick sketch.” Ronnie adds, “I go about drawing them in the same way I go about doing anyone. Some people get annoyed if they know I’m drawing them . I say stay like that but they won’t, so I have to get an average.”

In America in the early 1980’s Ronnie produced his fist prints, three woodcuts and a series of monotypes At that time he was not yet an experienced printmaker, so it was with great enthusiasm that he seized upon the opportunity, in 1987 to spend several months working in a professional printmaking studio in England. Since then he has devoted a considerable amount of time to printmaking and has produced a number of images using various techniques – etching, dry point, screen print and digital.

Ronnie has created portraits of his heroes including Johnny Rotten, Rod Stewart, John Lennon, Jack Nicholson, Jim Morison and of course Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts from the good old days. But he also has a mellower side apart from rock and roll. He loves to paint the views from his farm in County Kildare, Ireland, and the horses he keeps in stables there. And he aspires to more sculpture, having accumulated piles of driftwood, old phones and other miscellaneous junk to be used in experimental pieces.

Over the years his work has been widely exhibited in 1996 he had a retrospective exhibtion at the Museum of Modern Art, Sao Pulo Brazil. He has had numerous one-man exhibitions in North and South America in the Far East and throughout Europe. And his art is more then just a hobby: his paintings have sold for tens of thousands of pounds and have attracted acclaim from critics.

Jonathan Poole exhibition organizer and representative for the John Lennon Estate, Miles Davis Estate and several others Musicians who show their talents as visual artists as well as being musicians, is proud to organize this exhibition. He says, “I was introduced to Ronnie’s work by his printer Bernard Pratt I consider Ronnie to be an extremely capable visual artist. And his exhibition will not only enhance his reputation to the art world and general public but also prove that musicians can express.”