26 SEPTEMBER 2002
Putting his guitar-smashing days behind him, punk rock legend Paul Simonon has just presented an art exhibition of his peaceful London landscapes in the heart of the capital.

The former Clash bass player welcomed several other famous faces, including actor Ewan McGregor, to the private viewing of From Hammersmith To Greenwich at the Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox gallery in London's St James's.

Paul, who was born in London in 1955, has always painted, and spent a year at art school before dropping out because, he says, “It didn’t suit me.” From the mid-Seventies to the mid-Eighties, he was playing with the Clash, but a few years after they disbanded, he suddenly decided to jack in the music and devote himself to painting. “I went straight to the British Museum and started from the ground up,” he recalls. “I drew every day.”

His paintings are establishment – the House of Commons is apparently considering buying one – and he is hailed as a “professional artist” as opposed to just another rocker who’s taken to daubing. “Unfortunately a lot of it is rubbish,” concedes Paul when asked about that trend. “David Bowie and Paul McCartney’s stuff, for instance.”