kenneth abedana spencer (1929-2005). jamaican artist. lady on a donkey & fruits.

Kenneth Abendana Spencer (born Kenneth Abandamo) (1929 – 2005) was a Jamaican artist.Lady on a donkey with fruits. Signed & dated 1959. Spencer had talent as a painter of scenes of Jamaican life which, as a boy, he would sell for pocket-money in the capital of Kingston. In the 1950s he traveled to the UK but did not take the opportunity to attend Art School. Instead, he continued to sell his works, eventually buying a car, which became both his gallery and means of transport. He became an habitué and favourite of the basement clubs and jazz bars of Soho. His artistic education, such as it was, consisted of frequent visits to museums and art galleries where he picked up his technique. On returning to Jamaica in the 1970s, he started building a large house in Fisherman's Park, Long Bay, Portland. Six stories high with circular staircases and a vast studio, it was half castle and half temple, surrounded by a high wall. Here he settled with his common-law wife and two sons. It remains a tourist attraction. From there he continued to paint figurative canvasses - seascapes, landscapes, vignettes of Jamaican life and, from the 1970s, individual character sketches. He died on 28 December 2005, aged 76. (Olympia Gallery) Medium: Drawing, pen & ink & watercolour on paper. Mint conditionSize: 39.5 cms x 14 cms.Best Offer accepted.

Antiques.co.uk Ref: YFREBCGT5

Click here to enquire about this item directly on eBay.

Please note that this price may NOT include delivery charges which the seller may charge extra for.

Make an Offer

chinfineart.com

I am Chinfineart & have been dealing in antique drawings, old prints & antique paintings 16c-20c for 40 years. I also currently represent two well established current artists: Lorenzo Maria Bottari & Richard Ennis who have good auction & Museum records. My email address is: chinfineart@yahoo.co.uk. Am represented at ebay & Antiques.co.uk. Fine Art 16c-21c Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, Prints & Sculpture. Delivery quotations and further details upon request. Chin fine art guarantees authenticity of all the works they have for sale please email if you require further images or details. We are a London, United Kingdom based firm from the famous Portobello road The Admiral Vernon Arcade and we ship worldwide please ask us for details. I have always had an interest in antique books & antique art since I was young. I started dealing in Fine art & Antique Book dealing when I graduated in Philosophy at King’s College, London in 1974 & begun teaching.      I found a bedsit in Notting Hill Gate a stone’s throw away from Portobello Rd. I then learnt that I could supplement my rent & living expenses by dealing in antique books & antique pictures. I took four stalls under the big tent three quarters of the way down Portobello Rd every Saturday & begun selling second hand antique books to begin with & then antique prints, antique drawings & antique watercolours as & when I find them, buying from antique dealers in the market. It was a good place to meet up with collectors & dealers all over the world; many of them also took up stands to sell. A few of them have kept in contact & still doing business with me down the years. Whilst down that end of Portobello I must mention that a youngish French couple turned up early one morning & came to ask me where the toilets were & where to get a breakfast. I naturally pointed out to them how to get to the toilets, which were literally across the road. And I bought them breakfast. They were so grateful that when they left at the end of the day they came up & gave me bits & pieces of antiques & a collection of antique 18c copper plates of French/Italian erotic subjects! I had a few sets printed by the V & A, put a set up at Parker Auctions last year & it fetched £800.00! I am now going to make a limited edition set of, say, 900 copies & ask £900.00 a set for them. I can also publish a book of them selling at, say, £20.00 a copy. Pity is that I cannot now trace the French couple to thank them. And I hope no one now come to claim that they are the French couple! They will get a knock on the head.     After nine years I moved up Portobello Rd & took a stand at a big corner shop at the junction of Elgin Crescent. I was in the position then of seriously buying & selling antique drawings & antique paintings & meeting up with & making good clients. I here met up with a most important client. He was Joseph Galea-Naudi from Malta, the curator of St. John’s Co-Cathedral, the most important in Malta, they have 400 other cathedrals & churches. He bought from me as a Collector, invited me over to stay with him in Malta many times & I always brought him Old Master Paintings, antique drawings & antique prints which he hardly turned down. He also introduced me to his friend who owned many hotels in Gozo & I was chosen to value his collection of Old Master paintings & antique drawings. It was about this time that I must have come across Iain Brunt who now runs Antiques.co.uk.  Am happy that he started this company & has moved on from strength to strength. I then moved on to Pembridge Villas at the top of Portobello Rd. & established a gallery. I started representing artists like the well-known Sicilian-Italian artist Lorenzo Maria Bottari & organised exhibitions for him with the help of Brian Sewell, the famous art critic who, sadly, has passed on. I finally moved on to organise Book & Ephemera Fairs at the Royal National Hotel, Bloomsbury for about eight years, giving myself a stand to exhibit & sell my art works. I finally moved online, have a presence of about 1,200 items of stock at eBay at any one time. I kept running into Antiques.Co.Uk online whenever I searched for items or come across their advertisements. I got in touch with Iain Brunt who very kindly loaded up my eBay items at his site & am most grateful to him. I do the occasional Fairs & I give out the cards of Antiques.co.uk for Iain.

Contact details