Ozzy Osbourne painted five works of art with help from some chimpanzees – and the results are being auctioned with the aim of raising money for the endangered ape species.
The Black Sabbath icon, who played his final show on Saturday night, started each canvas with a tonal background. He left chimps named Kramer, Sable, Sophie and Janice to add their own colors.
The completed images were then given names related to Osbourne’s musical output over the years.
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Signed by the Prince of Darkness himself, they’re titled Technical Ecstasy, Electric Funeral, Blizzard of Ozz, Tattooed Dancer and Paranoid. Each has a starting price of £1,000 (around $1,360) with the Omega Auctions sale closing on July 17.
“I paint because it gives me peace of mind, but I don’t sell my paintings,” Osbourne said in a statement. “I’ve made an exception with these collaborations as it raises money for Save the Chimps, a sanctuary for hundreds of apes rescued from labs, roadside zoos and wildlife traffickers.”
Omega Auctions added: “Ozzy painted intricate, multicolored basecoats on five canvases, after which ape artists at the sanctuary added brushstrokes…This is a rare opportunity to own an original work of art by Ozzy, and the five works in this collection will be sold to raise vital funds for the work of Save The Chimps.”
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The sanctuary, located on 150 acres in Fort Pierce, Florida, “provides refuge and lifetime care to hundreds of chimpanzees,” where they “receive top-notch veterinary care, nutritious meals, and a variety of social enrichments – including painting.”
“I don’t have any artistic skill,” Osbourne told his family in a media clip last year. “I can’t paint a portrait or anything like that. I just enjoy mixing colors.” Asked if he started with a name or added them afterwards, he said the titles always came at the end and referred to an image of a piece of toast he’d painted, saying: “One of my favorite named I came up with recently was ‘Dreams on Toast!’”
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Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles
