Though best known as the lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones, you're as likely to find him sketching a charcoal portrait as working on a new track with guitar in hand.

Ronnie Wood was born in Middlesex in 1947, and is the youngest child in a family that was both musical and artistic. He grew up surrounded by music of the great jazz legends and was strongly influenced by his father, who played in a 24 piece band. At the age of nine, he made his own musical debut, playing washboard with his brother in their skiffle band; perhaps an indication of his future success with the Rolling Stones.

He received formal art training at Ealing College of Art, and has continued painting, drawing and printmaking for over 35 years. Throughout his musical career – first as a member of the Jeff Beck Group, then the Faces, and since 1975 the Rolling Stones – Ronnie Wood continued painting and drawing, his subjects ranging from self-portraits, to musicians, to family and close friends (including the Stones, as a group and individually).

Ronnie Wood has captured in many mediums legendary Rock n' Roll, Pop and rhythm & Blue performers including Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Madonna – all friends or admired colleagues. He knows his subjects well, often having performed with them on stage or in the studio during his musical career; especially after joining the Rolling Stones.

These portraits, featured in this exhibition, of his fellow Rolling Stones band mates and other famous friends are executed in a straightforward style that captures the intimacy of the relationship between subject and artist. For Ronnie, music and art have always gone hand-in-hand, and the intensity that he brings to the guitar translates onto canvas and paper with rhythmic line and vibrant colour. Ronnie Wood's paintings are a record of his many talents and loves. One of the things he most enjoys is to paint the views from his farm in County Kildare Ireland and the horses he keeps in stables there, allowing him time to take time out from both the media attention that follows him everywhere and also work on his future projects, both with the Rolling Stones and other musicians, in a more secluded atmosphere.

Ronnie Wood has also held solo exhibitions in New York, Las Vegas and Tokyo, as well as retrospectives at the Modern Art Museum in Sao Paulo and the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.

"I apply musical theory to my art. I build limited edition silk screen prints in much the same way as studio overdubs, the more defined ones are things that stand out in the mix." - Ronnie Wood.