Ronnie Wood

As a guitarist, I’m known very much as a rock guitar player—a defined genre. My art allows me to explore more. I break the confines of a chord sequence with my art; I’m able to do whatever I want without having to think about being a part of a band, restricted by what a particular song needs.

For me, art and music are so similar; sometimes putting more time into a song or picture does not necessarily make it better. Having said that, I have gone back to a painting that I started and at the time was unable to finish, but after returning to it, it has worked out fine. Both art and music hold their position in my life. They bounce off one another and make me the person I am. Sometimes I hit a streak that overtakes everything and I just have to paint. Music sometimes calls me and I take the painting with me, and equally it happens in reverse. But more often than not they are both happening at the same time. I paint to music, and sometimes when I’m playing, in my head I’m doing it to a painting.

Art fills my life, art is my life and art will continue to be my life.

Ronnie Wood was born in 1947 in Middlesex, England, into a musical and artistic family. Before beginning his musical career he received formal art training at Ealing College of Art, London.

Throughout the years, the artist and the musician have been inseparable. As his musical career progressed, Ronnie continued his passion for painting and drawing; his subjects ranging from band members and musicians he admired, knew and sometimes played with, to family and close friends—and, of 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.

Over the years Ronnie Wood’s work has been widely exhibited. In 1996, he had a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2010, he had a major exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art U.S.A. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in North and
South America, in the Far East and throughout Europe.

PUBLICATIONS
Ronnie and his art has been the subject of several books including ‘Ronnie Wood - Artist’ and ‘Set Pieces’ a series of books featuring Ronnie’s interpretations of Rolling Stones setlists.