Mark Mulholland Artist
Mark and John Byrne - Joyful Memories
Mark first met John in 2013 in Edinburgh, his son was the first to buck up the courage to introduce himself. He said,
"Hi Mr. Byrne, I'm Michelangelo and my dad's an artist too!" Soon both artists were sharing stories of their times on travel scholarships to Italy. During meals out and studio visits, the friendship grew and they went on to paint portraits of one another.
Mark created a sequence of works of John, culminating in the painting featured in the 2014 BP Portrait Award. His initial sketch that started the process off (below), using charcoal and Conte pencils, he recalls:
"I feverishly drew John, as he sat opposite me. It was a crisp late November evening in 2013. JB's loft studio in his Edinburgh flat in Bruntsfield was nice and warm and John was already acclimatised. With the log burner pumping out the heat, I stripped down to a T-shirt and enjoyed chatting to John and Jeanine with coffee and mince pies. His studio companion was their oversized pet rabbit named Thistle, who was also enjoying my mince pie (I had placed the plate on the studio floor to start drawing). What with the heat in the studio and finding myself opposite my art hero who was sitting for me, my sweaty fingers kept slipping down the pencils. This first sketch was about starting to see his features; his prominent nose, compassionate eyes and high cheekbones, along with the ample beard and nicotine-stained, yet well-maintained moustache."
Mark's second head study, this time in oils, was painted "alla prima" in one sitting. He noted:
"Sometimes I surprise myself, often convinced that I am a painfully slow worker, and then - boom! - a painting just flows off the brush.
The light in his studio that day was ideal. The stark contrast between the cold wintery light from the dormer windows and the warm glow of the fire in his forever-lit wood burner - it was all perfectly conducive for something to happen and with no time to waste!"
"John's studio space in that flat at the Bruntsfield Links was just a stone's throw from Edinburgh's Kings Theatre and was small to say the least. Crammed with artworks in progress, notes to self dotted here and there, jackets and dressing gowns on hooks behind the door, jars and tub after tub of unopened art supplies, and book cases with the works of his favourite creators, Magritte, Rousseau and Chekhov amongst others, I felt like a wee boy in a sweetie shop."
"John also had an impressive collection of guitars hanging on the walls of that tight space. He told me that some were worth something and others he'd picked up from thrift shops. He'd sand them down and paint on them (much like those he painted for his chum and fellow Buddie, Gerry Rafferty).
He liked playing a cheap and cheerful one that he had bought at a stall in the Meadows for next to nothing, but said 'sounded great'. That day I went round to his flat, accompanied by Michelangelo. He and John were to have an impromptu jam session and I was the fortunate onlooker.
John went on to gift Michelangelo the Takamine acoustic that he had played that day. John said that it had been given to him by it's former owner, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics."
'John Byrne in His Studio'
"Working on this pen & ink drawing, I wanted to focus on both John & the things he loved.
I rendered my work with a cross-hatch technique, one that he employed so beautifully in his art.
I had the good fortune of attending his plays 'The Slab Boys' & 'Uncle Varick' at the King's Theatre. The latter was John's rewritten version of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya'. So I arranged a Chekhov book atop one by Byrne. At the bottom, a book of the works of Henri Rousseau. These three books were arranged in the colour of the Irish Tricolour, referring to his Irish roots.
John professed to me that his favourite painting was Rousseau's 'The Sleeping Gypsy' - he loved it so much that he even once secretly touched its surface to feel that bit closer to it. A version lies on the floor of his studio in honour of that close encounter.
John loved strumming his guitar. When seeing this drawing, he commented that he was pleased to see that I had captured him "actually playing a proper chord!"
"He loved playing the mouth organ too - he carried one in his dapper suit pocket and would pull it out; sucking and blowing on it with his impish eyes peering over the top to see if anyone was observing this delight. I would laugh to myself, as with each swipe of the instrument from side to side, his large bushy moustache would sway, first one way, then the other in time with the ditty.
Thistle, the gorgeous caramel coloured pet with the softest fur, would sit in a straw lined circular cushion, which sat on a box under John's working table in the middle of the room. 'Thistle HQ' as he told me with a deep chuckle. On one occasion, John was out of the studio & on his return, was shocked to see that the rabbit had jumped up onto his nearly completed drawing, knocking over his half finished tea with honey. The image of Thistle appears in my drawing on John's Mug, sitting on the chair in the background."
Informed by his lead up work, Mark made use of photographs taken on the day of the jam session. Several different images, each with their own slightly different pose, were morphed together to create a distorted perspective. This accompanied with the collection of musical instruments and used palettes, purposefully simplified space around the sitter and an asymmetrical composition, allowed John to take 'centre stage'.
The National Portrait Gallery published a revised edition of '500 Portraits' book to celebrate 25 years of the BP Portrait Award. It featured Mark's painting of JB.
In 2018, Mark's portrait featured as a question in the Scottish Qualifications Authority National 5 Art and Design exam paper.
"John invited me to his new studio to sit for him, he had primed a piece of hardboard, which sat on his easel with a selection of oils arranged and ready for use. He made me a coffee and he a tea, mixing a spoon of heather honey into each mug. We munched on the Florentines I had brought, as he started to capture my quiff. I was happy to be like one of his Teddy Boys in that moment. John very kindly gifted me the painting. I love how he captured elements of me and managed to sew through it, his own methods of stylisation and character."
When John and Jeanine moved to Lanark Road, JB had two workspaces; an indoor studio for the winter months and a converted garage space for the summertime and for painting larger works - something he admitted missing since living in the city centre apartment. It was in this outdoor space that John and Jeanine invited Mark and son Thomas to see something up close that they knew Mark would appreciate.
"I had seen the large portrait of Billy Connolly once before in John's 'Sitting Ducks' exhibition, so to see it up close and personal at this 'private audience' was quite something.
I was aware of the other panel, which had been lost or stolen; there was now only a black & white photo of the painting - a solitary banjo resting against a wall with its broad skirting board.
John had been tasked with recreating the lost panel, and had started the equally sized work.
Billy stood proud in his frame, resting against the whitewashed brick wall, right next to it this new board with a blue wall and differently designed banjo loosely painted in."
"John had clearly struggled in the beginning to colour match the two walls, as bowls and other receptacles coated with the remnants of differing hues of blue, sat on his work table.
I noticed how, in the 40-odd years between the painting of these two panels, John's style had changed. Perhaps it was something to do with his failing eyesight or the carefree spirit that I am told one settles into in older age.
I think however, it was the former that was at play whilst JB painted the new version of the banjo panel, it appeared that splashes of the fresh blue pigment had inadvertently been sprayed by his heavily loaded brush onto Billy's panel. Both parts of the diptych were now inextricably linked."
Shortly after John's passing in November 2023, Mark revisited images of John that he had captured. His 2017 studio visit and Billy's banjo panels began to capture his imagination. Using the same approach as previously adopted, he fused different photos form the visit to recreate a memory of the day.
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"John was wearing his 'bleu de travail' French workers jacket, which looked great against the blue walls in his paintings, he had just rolled a cigarette which flicked up and down whist he talked. Those were the kind of details I remembered about John, along with his warm hugs, pulling you in to his overcoats that were impregnated with the smell of refined turpentine. He would muse of his love for turps, often referring to it as one of the greatest perfumes that existed.
I missed seeing him, so asked Jeanine if she would mind me painting another portrait of her dearest John; one which would act as a support during the grieving process. whilst painting over the months following his passing, I watched and listened to programs and interviews with John, filling the void with joyful memories."
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'The Strange Case of Billy's Banjo' would be one of two paintings Mark had shortlisted for the 2024 Scottish Portrait Awards. It featuring in the press later that year and received the GAC Fine Art Prize in February 2025.
Mark's two most recent depictions of John were in part realised during a live painting demonstration in late 2024. (images courtesy of Anne MacLeod - Paisley Artists Group FB page)
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"It was rather fitting for these paintings of John to be painted in his beloved hometown in front of the Paisley Artists Group. I started the 'Grisaille' Greyscale head study on the night and continued it for a handful of hours back in the studio."
Mark titled the completed painting 'Night Owl' the same name as the Gerry Rafferty album that John had created the sleeve artwork for back in 1979. It was duly selected for exhibition at the RSA in Edinburgh for the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Show 2025 and featured heavy in the press that week.
