Around a year ago we showed you this amazing portrait of Ronnie Wood by York-born artist David Kettley we got some amazing feedback and some members including the SMILER team even visited Plunkets restaurant in High Petergate in York where it on permanent display to see the painting in its full glory.
David told us at the time “I’m surprised at myself for not having done a painting of Rod. His early albums were very supportive to me if that’s the right phrase! When I was at Art College in the early ’70s”
After thinking about it David decided to do the Rod painting and said he would give SMILER members a chance to buy prints of it when it was finished, we thought it would be a good idea if David kept us all up to date with the paintings progress and showed us the painting in various stages,
This week David sent us the first update saying “I’m doing the “underpainting” at the moment – with the intention of painting it in oils (24″x30″)”. And promised to send more photos, as the painting develops, we can’t wait for the next stage of this very exciting project.
David was trained at York School of Art and Exeter College of Art, where he was awarded a BA in Fine Art Painting in 1974.His paintings have developed from Hard Edge Abstraction in the early 1970’s, through English Eccentric Realism (Portal Gallery, London), to a style that reflects the British Pop Art tradition that was influential in his training.
The potential of his larger paintings (approx. 10ft x 6ft), has been recognised by commercial concerns. For instance the “Beggars Banquet” series of 6 canvasses for Plunkets Restaurant in York, and the 8 paintings for Harry’s Brasserie in Hessle.
He has been involved in educational projects enabling children to experience the artistic process from concept to finished artwork. These include murals in Primary schools at North Rigton, Rufforth and Wheldrake. And for community projects at Wheldrake Youth Club and Fairfield Community Centre in Leeds.
Commercial projects have included decorative paintwork on double decker busses, museum backdrops, and producing artefacts and “antique” signs for educational centres, such as “The Rum Story” in Whitehaven
