Besides being a great guitarist, The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood is also an accomplished painter. The veteran rocker is using his artistic talents to help raise money for Tusk, an organization focused on the conservation of African wildlife.
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Earlier this year, Wood painted a fiberglass gorilla statue as part of the charity’s Tusk Gorilla Trail 2023 campaign, which featured 15 uniquely painted life-size fiberglass ape statues displayed in London’s Covent Garden neighborhood. Now, those statues are being auctioned off to benefit Tusk’s efforts to protect endangered wildlife in Africa.
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Wood’s statue is titled “Paint It Black,” and was inspired by The Rolling Stones’ classic 1966 song of the same name. The 76-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s design features black and gray acrylic paint, with the song title appearing down the back of the gorilla.
As of November 1, bidding on Wood’s gorilla statue stood at 7,500 pounds (about $9,100), although the sculpture is expected to fetch between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds (about $12,000 to about $33,300). You can check out photos of Wood with the statue he painted on his social media sites and TuskGorillaTrail.com.
Wood’s wife, Sally, also contributed a pink-painted gorilla statue to the campaign. Other celebrities who painted statues for the initiative include John Cleese of Monty Python fame and actress Jemma Powell.
Nine of the statues, including the ones painted by Wood and Cleese, will be sold at a live auction that will be held on Monday, November 20, with online bids being accepted until 4 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) that day. The six other statues will be sold via a silent auction, with bidding closing at 9 p.m. GMT that same day.
Tusk was founded in 1990 and has invested more than $100 million into African wildlife conservation projects over the years. Prince William is the organization’s royal patron.
In other news, Wood recently made available for purchase prints of the latest in a series of Rolling Stones set lists he designs and hand paints specially for each of his band’s concerts. The new set list features the songs The Stones played at their surprise New York City club show at Racket NYC on October 19 celebrating the release of the band’s new studio album, Hackney Diamonds.
The hand-numbered prints are priced at $100 and are available at Wood’s online store. Only 1,000 prints were produced.
Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images
