Kenneth Abendana Spencer (born Kenneth Abandamo) (1929 – 2005) was a Jamaican artist.
Lady selling fish. 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 condition
Size: 39.5 cms x 14 cms.
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