Def Leppard News - DEF LEPPARD's RICK ALLEN Talks About His STEVE CLARK Painting

Thursday, 11th January 2018

DEF LEPPARD's RICK ALLEN Talks About His STEVE CLARK Painting

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Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen was recently interviewed about his artwork and mentioned his new Steve Clark painting.

Rick spoke to NJ Arts ahead of his return to Wentworth Galleries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He talked about the band's friendship, other band members supporting his artwork, his artwork exhibitions, his style/inspiration, charity work, working on his wife Lauren's music,his return to drumming, fellow one-armed drummers, meeting fans and his new Steve Clark painting.

The new Steve Clark painting is part of the Legends series which will also feature Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon.

The events take place on 13th and 14th January 2018 in Shorts Hills and King Of Prussia.

They were first announced in December 2017 after two other events had taken place in mid November in Atlanta, GA.

NJ Arts - Rick Allen Interview Quotes

Steve Clark Painting

"It was so important for me to capture the essence of Steve, and I didn’t want to mess that up, because I will always remember his face in a certain way. I work with photographs and I changed the contrast so that I could capture his essence. My work is very posterized because of the way that I paint. I can’t really do realism. But when I posterize things, I can really capture something. It was a great learning tool in trying to capture Steve’s face and to get it right. I do feel that the end result was fantastic."

"I actually took a snapshot of Steve’s piece and sent it to my mother. She still keeps in touch with Steve’s family and took the picture up there to show it to his mom and dad. She said his mom had tears rolling down her cheeks. It wasn’t that I wanted to make her sad or anything, it was more me paying homage to her son, one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known."

Def Leppard Friendship

"Absolutely. I think it’s one of the things that have kept Def Leppard going for all these years. The fact that through the ups and downs – especially the downs, when you’re sitting in a room together asking yourselves, “Why are we doing this again?” – you quickly come to the conclusion that, “Well, we enjoy hanging out with each other, and we’re friends, so let’s get through whatever it is together, and keep doing what we do."

“The Legends piece is a way for me to celebrate my Love for Steve... working on the piece was a spiritual journey that uncovered my gratitude for having known him”🙏🏼❤️🌈 #rickallen #steveclark #leadwithlove #defleppard #wentworthgallery

A post shared by Rick Allen (@rickallenlive) on Jan 8, 2018 at 8:35am PST