Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood is dealing with an “obsession” with painting. The guitarist is busy painting it black and is hooked on Italian artists.
Ronnie, 77, beamed: “My most recent inspiration and obsession is Caravaggio.” The rocker is getting ready to exhibit 27 of his paintings in London on Tuesday (12 November).
Six of his works are inspired by the Italian painter Caravaggio and one, Undermath, reimagines his bandmates in the style of the his 1600 painting The Calling of Saint Matthew.
A print version will be on sale for £2,000 - and Ronnie revealed the rest of the band are fans.
He said: “Keith [Richards] says I’m very prolific. There are so many different styles.
“Being a Gemini, my appetite for inspiration is so widespread. It’s a bit like my music, I go from Mozart to Marley, you know what I mean?
“Mick [Jagger] hasn’t seen a lot of them live but the ones he has seen he’s really liked.”
One painting is a portrait of his old pal Amy Winehouse, who was 27 when she died in 2011.
Ronnie said: “She was a great friend of mine. She was a mixed-up kid, and she was like, ‘What am I going to do?’ [I said] ‘Well, just don’t put vodka in your water.’
“She was so loving and so lovely.”
He has kicked addictions to booze, fags and drugs - and the rocker said he is the happiest he has ever been.
Ronnie added: “It really is. I’m just enjoying life at the moment. I have more clarity.
“That’s not to say that when I was in the good old days, using days, I did some great pieces on that too, because it just made me stay longer at the canvas
“I get so obsessed with an idea that I go in and start on a canvas and sometimes I’ve been there for hours and I realise I haven’t even taken my jacket off.”
English (US) ·