Kenneth Abendana Spencer (born Kenneth Abandamo; 13 April 1929 – 28 December 2005) was a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n artist.

Biography

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 Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. In the 1950s he traveled to the UK and he continued to sell his works, eventually buying a car, which became both his gallery and means of transport. He became an ' and favourite of the basement clubs and jazz bars of

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

. 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

in the 1970s, he started building a large house in Fisherman's Park, Long Bay,

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Kenneth Abendana 1929 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Jamaican painters