Painting Mick was hardest

Ronnie with wife Jo, who was mistaken as staff by Joan Collins

11 April 2012

As I arrive at Ronnie Wood's home near Richmond, domestic chores are at the top of the agenda. In the driveway, Wood's daughter Leah is finishing hoovering out her black Land Rover; his son Jamie has just buffed up his own car and Wood's wife, Jo, is sponging down her brand-new Mercedes SL500 sports. But none of us can quite work out the in-car navigation system. "It's a very rock 'n' roll wife's car, though, isn't it?" she laughs, as all of us eventually trundle inside.

Wood looks tired - and he has reason to be. The Rolling Stones' gruelling 18-month world tour has culminated in a series of London gigs. Following their 75,000 sell-out concerts at nearby Twickenham, this week it's Wembley Arena's turn before a final concert - and, more than likely, the very last concert the band will ever play in their home country - again at England's rugby stadium on Saturday.

But for this exclusive interview, Wood - the "good bloke Rolling Stone" - doesn't want to talk about rock'n'roll. Instead, and somewhat surprisingly for a rock star, the Royal Academy is on his mind and, in particular, the remarkable three-panel portrait of London's "new society" that Wood has painted, and which is on view at the Royal Academy from this weekend.

The triptych - entitled London Dining - captures the nightly table-hopping at The Ivy restaurant and features Wood's stylised portraits of Ivy regulars such as Sir Elton John, Kate Moss, Trevor Nunn, Simon Callow and Stephen Fry, as well as most of his fellow Stones.

The painting - which had its first proper showing at an A-list party last night - was an original idea of Lord Lloyd-Webber and his wife. "Madeleine Lloyd Webber wanted to emulate the kind of Victorian thing of capturing a moment in society," he tells me, "the actors, writers, celebrities who go to The Ivy. I thought it was a good challenge for me, to be honest. The hardest thing wasn't actually painting the people, it was working out who should be included, who shouldn't, who should be sitting next to who."

He puffs on a cigarette as his wife oversees supper in the kitchen behind us.

"Not everyone will be happy, I suppose, that they haven't been included. Some have come up to me and asked why they weren't in it but I just tell them, 'Nothing to do with me, mate, ask Madeleine! She did the guest list!'"

It's a vast, meandering work that took Wood more than two years to complete and saw his subjects turning up at the door of his faux-Gothic mansion overlooking Richmond Park. Most of those included sat for an hour or so in the conservatory studio adjoining the house. "I'm not sure who was more nervous, them or me," he says, as the dining room table is cleared for supper. "Joan Collins came for a sitting and she was, like, 'I'm terribly busy, darling, I haven't got much time, I have to get to the theatre." So I thought, 'Okay, fine, we'll make it quick.'" Wood does a perfectly pitched impersonation of Collins.

"Anyway," he goes on, "Joan was sitting in the studio, being very Joan. The next thing Jo, my wife, comes in with a cup of tea for her. Joan doesn't even bloody acknowledge her, she thinks Jo's just one of the staff, and Joan says, 'Oh, just put it down there.' You can imagine my bloody wife's reaction, so I look up and say, 'Joan, have you met my wife?'" He collapses in laughter and the mischievous eyes bear witness to Joan's excruciating embarrassment.

Wood has included 60 well-known London figures in the oil. They are the result of a laborious series of pencil and charcoal sketches he made of his subjects, often late into the night examining photographs to try and capture a particular expression. Taking his initial drafts on tour with him - he always travels with an art box - Wood slowly and painstakingly began to assemble the 15ft by 8ft canvas.

Back at home, and in between tour dates, the final oil itself began to come together only in the past few months.

"Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell were among the most difficult to paint, I suppose, because they've been so photographed and we know their faces so well, and I wasn't sure how the hell I was going to make them work." It took him hours to get it right in his studio, fussing over the sketches and photographs.

For one sitting, Mariella Frostrup turned up at the studio at 3pm and didn't leave to 3am the next morning - "bit of a heavy night", says Wood. When the work was all-but-finished, Lady Lloyd-Webber called Wood with an urgent request. "She wanted Imogen-Stubbs in and what's her other half called?" It's Trevor Nunn, the theatre director. "Yeah, him, as well, and I'm like, 'But Madeleine, the thing's already been crated up,' but she wants me to put them in so I open it up again and shove 'em in on the right."

The painting forms part of Lord Lloyd-Webber's collection of Pre-Raphaelite and other Masters that is on show, for the first time, at the Royal Academy from this week. Wood's contribution will be displayed in the Academy's restaurant and is also featured in a South Bank Show special this coming Friday; conveniently, South Bank presenter Lord Bragg is also included in one of the panels. "Not bad I suppose, being in the RA with the likes of Picasso," Wood laughs. "But God knows what the people in it will think when they finally bloody see it."

Wood - always the most approachable of The Stones - is an engaging character, chain-smoking and unpretentious; when you're a Rolling Stone little impresses you, perhaps, especially the vanity and huge egos of some of the subjects who sat for him. The most difficult, perhaps not surprisingly, was Jagger himself. "It's not because I know Mick so well, it's just he has so many different moods, his face changes, you know, depending on what's happening, which makes it hard to get a real, definitive portrait." Is Jagger happy with it? Wood laughs. "Let's say he's seen lots of paintings I've done of him." Another Marlboro Light (mine) is demolished. "But, yeah, it works, I think."

It might be difficult to imagine Wood, 55, as London's beau monde artist-in-residence. This, after all, is the guitarist who has battled with drink and drugs problems and who Jagger famously told to clean up his act before the current Stones' tour.

But, as friends of Wood will attest, he is also a shrewd and dedicated artist who takes his painting very seriously indeed. "I always knew that when I got back to doing art, people would think, 'Oh, here's just another rock star trying to turn his hand to something else.' But I knew I could paint, I knew it was something I was good at."

Wood was only a 13-year-old schoolboy in Ruislip, Middlesex, when he first won a TV art competition on Adrian Hills' Sketch Show, a kind of Rolf Harris-type show of its day. His brothers, Arthur and Ted, who are both older, still work as commercial artists and it was from them that Wood's fascination with art took hold.

"I'd watch Sketch Show every Friday night - there were only two TV channels then, so everyone bloody watched it - and there I am winning the bloody competition!" After studying at Ealing Art College, Wood inevitably discovered that the world of rock music would pay more and his rock career took off instead. Still, he has always painted throughout his time with The Stones, subjects including Muhammad Ali - "Did you know, he does the most amazing magician tricks?" - Madonna and Bob Dylan. "And the best thing about painting was meeting lots of girls," he jokes, his wife out of earshot.

Things have certainly changed in the world of the Rolling Stones. In what some will doubtless find a wonderfully emblematic image, Wood tells me that he, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts spend their time on tour sketching and painting. " Charlie's always bloody drawing something, mainly the food people leave on their plates or the view from the hotel window. Keith just sits down and makes some sketch of someone in the room, or something."

It's just before 10pm now and Wood turns the lights out in his studio. He won't have much time to sketch or paint for the next few days. "Maybe in the middle of the week, when the Wembley shows are over, I'll pop in here for an hour or two," he says. "But for now I'm off to bed."

Culture and early nights: some things do change in the life of a Rolling Stone.

Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: the Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection runs from 20 September until 12 December at the Royal Academy.

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