Kenneth Abendana Spencer

www.jamaica-gleaner.com/20060219/arts1.htmlwww.jamaica-gleaner.com/20060219/arts2.htmlwww.jtbonline.org/resources/mediaMoon Jamaica, Avalon Travel 2007. Oliver Hill. ISBN 1566915694 pp.131
Jamaican artist Kenneth Abendana Spencer was born Kenneth Abandamo on April 13 1929. He quickly started to show signs of a significant talent as a painter of scenes of Jamaican life which, as a boy, he would sell for pocket-money in the capital of Kingston. He was to develop as a prolific, creative and eccentric character greatly loved by all who had dealings with him. 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 to whomsoever would buy them (and there were many), eventually buying a car, which became both his gallery and means of transport. In his distinctive beret, 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 1986, he started one of his most eccentric projects, the building of an enormous 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 to keep out thieves - he said that when it was finished (probably not his intention) it would rival St. Paul's! Here he settled with his common-law wife Charming and their two sons, Kenneth Abendana Spencer Jr., and Kensington Spencer, himself also an artist. It remains a tourist attraction. From here he continued to paint obsessively in oils, acrylic and water-colour, finding a ready market for his numerous vibrant figurative canvasses - seascapes, landscapes, vignettes of Jamaican life and, from the 1970s, individual character sketches of great vitality. He died on December 28 2005, aged 76, much valued and now being increasingly collected.