Celie Byrne is a Scottish contemporary, multi-disciplinary artist based in Paisley. Since her inclusion in the 2011 BP Portrait Award Exhibition with ‘Teenage Dirtbag’, a painting of her then teenaged son, Celie has become prolific in the intervening years. She predominantly paints portraits but can also be seen up scaffolding, brush in hand, to produce large scale murals as part of the Kelty Street Art (KSA) or tooled up to collaborate with fellow artists to reimagine once loved but neglected spaces to form thoughtful and political installations.
Celie’s commissioned portraits hang in numerous private collections, with her most recent self-portrait being acquired by the Northern Ireland Civil Service which is now part of Stormont Estate permanent collection. Her style is figurative, straightforward and deceptively honest. Celie manages to capture the subtleties and quirks that characterise the individuality of all her sitters.
Having the parents Celie has, has been crucial. They are the funniest people she knows and she likes to inject a little bit of her inherited humour into her art. Celie is all about the people on her doorstep, she loves painting them and she loves painting for them.
As a multi-disciplinary artist working in paint, installation, performing on occasion with The Grand Gestures and video, as well as acting as technical support on other artists large scale projects, Celie symbolises transformation and change. If you want something done, ask a busy woman.
BIRDMAN: A PORTRAIT OF DR J. DREW LANHAM
I love a good podcast and one of my favourites is 'This Is Love' hosted by American journalist Phoebe Judge. There was a particular episode, 'Prairie Warbler', with Dr J Drew Lanham, an American author, poet and wildlife biologist. In the podcast he talked about growing up on a farm in South Carolina where he would make his own wings, in an attempt to fly (unsuccessfully) and make binoculars from loo roll tubes. At first, he studied engineering but was miserable. Then one day he heard the call of the Prairie Warbler which inspired him to go on to study zoology and ecology at Clemson University, South Carolina, where he currently holds an endowed chair as an Alumni Distinguished Professor. His research focuses on songbird ecology, as well as the African American role in natural-resources conservation.
Since discovering Dr Lanham through this podcast back in 2020, I’ve been telling everyone who will listen, about him and his 9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher. This was an article first published back in 2013 which humorously outlined just some of the obstacles and observations he (and many others) face while out in nature, whether it’s birdwatching or hillwalking.
Couple of years ago I was isolating with COVID wondering what on earth I’d do for 10 days. There were many ideas I could have run with, but my mind kept coming back to Dr Lanham and his childhood memories. I took a chance to contact him somehow with the thought of painting his portrait, reimagining him as an adult wearing wings and binoculars constructed out of cardboard. So, on the morning of 21 March 2022, I emailed Dr Drew outlining my initial thoughts, imagery and reasons for such a request. With my usual ‘hope for the best but expect the least’ attitude you can picture my face when by 4pm that same day Dr Drew answered my email with a resounding ‘YES! Paint away Celie, I’m thrilled and excited’.
Thus began my actualising an outfit for Drew scavenged from the skip. I cobbled together the wings and binoculars of cardboard with string, tape, nuts and bolts before forming the final composition across panels to be housed in three very old and very broken oval frames. Getting my wee pal Phill Jupitus to model for me was beneficial as he’s the same height as Dr Drew and always willing to share adventure and hijinks with me.
Bizarrely it was harder to paint the cardboard than it was to paint the man.... Dr Drew was an absolute joy to immortalise.