Ronnie Wood is selling limited edition Freddie Mercury portraits for charity

Ronnie Wood is selling special prints of his portrait of Freddie Mercury to raise funds for a trust set up in the late singer’s name.

The Rolling Stones guitarist, 77, has spent years honing his art skills alongside his music and has released £799 editions of his painting of the Queen singer, who was killed by AIDS-related complications aged 45 in 1991.

Ronnie took to social media, sharing a series of pictures of a framed version of the print and saying: “NEW ART RELEASED! Ronnie’s study of @freddiemercury is a tribute to one of the greatest singers in rock ’n’ roll history.

“‘The Mercury’ depicts Freddie in an iconic pose in his iconic yellow jacket worn at @officialqueenmusic’s legendary Live Aid performance.

“Profits from the sale will benefit the @mercuryphoenixtrust.”

Digital prints of the image, which have been numbered and individually hand-signed by Ronnie, are from a limited edition run of 250.

The Mercury Phoenix Trust, which is getting a chunk of profits from sales of the prints, was founded by Freddie’s Queen bandmates Brian May, 77, Roger Taylor, 75, and their manager Jim Beach, 82, in memory of the singer.

It says on its site about its mission: “The dreadful toll of the Covid pandemic is slowly being revealed and it has especially impacted on women and girls, with a huge increase in teenage pregnancies, violence to women, domestic abuse and of course AIDS.

“Charities estimate much of their work and achievements over the last twenty years has been undone but they are eager to start again and regain lost ground.

“For many years, the MPT has focused on funding Education and Awareness projects in the developing world, believing that knowledge and prevention are key to tackling this terrible disease.

“The projects funded cover a breadth of education and awareness issues, ranging from educating grandparents looking after their grandchildren orphaned by AIDS in Cambodia, to preventing mother to child transmission in South Africa, to HIV awareness theatre in Papua New Guinea and educating sexually active youth globally.

“Although the MPT donates to the large NGOs and well-known charities, the greater part of funding goes direct to small grassroots organisations, which the bigger charities tend to overlook.

“By doing so, the MPT makes a real difference. We are proud of the fact that more that 93p in each pound we raise goes to funding projects spread across the globe and in total the MPT has funded well over 1,500 projects in 57 countries, giving away over 17 million pounds in the global battle against AIDS.”

- Bang! Showbiz and republished with permission