
Celie Byrne: the acclaimed artist returns to Paisley
A year on from her acclaimed father’s passing on November 30th 2023, Celie Byrne is leaving her own distinct mark on Renfrewshire’s artistic ecosystem. In a reflective chat with Mill Editor Robert Blair, they discuss her long and winding journey back to her hometown, as well as the lasting effect that both of Celie’s parents had on her.
The world has a sneaky way of subtly guiding you back to where you’ve come from. For Celie Byrne, second-born child of Ferguslie’s most famous son John Byrne and fellow artist Alice Simpson, it was her parents’ passing that led both her and her brother back to their point of origin.
However, it isn’t a move that has been defined by grief or abject misery. Instead, it has been a chance for her to carve out her own connections to the town that go far beyond blood or even the accomplished brushstrokes that has made her surname synonymous with greatness in Paisley.
“It was strange,” Celie said of returning to the first place that she ever called home. “My brother [John] and I hadn’t been back for 40 years. We were really happy. We didn’t have many pals, but we hung around with each other. We remember Renfrew Airport. My brother was really into filmmaking and we used to write these scripts that we’d then act out on the concourse. I’d be a child pretending to be poisoned and stuff like that. We felt like the VIPs (laughs).
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“We didn’t expect to be back, because it felt difficult at first. It’s been quite the transition. But, in the last couple of weeks, things are starting to change. It’s obviously a reminder that my parents weren’t alive, but they lived to good ages. There wasn’t any tragedy, but being back here, there’s a lot to remember that being this and that doesn’t exist anymore. As well as seeing a lot of things that have been built since.”
An immensely talented artist in her own right who works across a wide variety of mediums, Celie Byrne has been making strides back into the creative realms of Renfrewshire in recent months. After moving around various studios, she’s now settled in at a space alongside another artist who has graced these pages before in Indie McCue. In recent months, Celie and the SCOPE Renfrewshire founder have become great friends and support each other through the turbulent professional world they inhabit.
“There’s good guys and bad guys everywhere, but I’ll always be with the workers,” Celie said of the like-minded people she gravitates towards in her life and career. “When I met Indie, he really turned things around for me. He became one of my gang. I didn’t tell anyone who I was when I came back, I just said that I was a painter who’d moved back here. I felt like I had to wade through a whole lot of mud at first, but I really need to thank Indie. He was an oasis. Now, we go to The Last Post on a Friday for a pint and some food to just talk for hours.”

John with his son John
Raised by one of Scotland’s most revered artists, a love of all things creative has been emblazoned into the heart of Celie Byrne from the very moment she was old enough to pick up a brush. But, there was a time where she didn’t wish to follow in the footsteps of her parents whatsoever.
“Since we were born,” Celie declared of the role of all things imaginative in her life. “My parents met at Glasgow Art School, so we didn’t know any other life. I’m glad I’m doing it, but there was a point where I thought I wanted to go into finance or work on Wall Street or something (laughs). We didn’t grow up with money, so I thought, ‘I’ll live in New York, pay my parents a monthly stipend to leave me alone and buy them a house’. I actually should’ve been an architect, as maths was my favourite subject. But, when I said to the careers advisor at Trinity [High School], I was told that women weren’t architects. It was the 70s, I suppose, but it was ridiculous. I’ll never forget that man’s name.
“So, I wanted to do graphics and stuff. My brother went to art school, but hated it as he was John Byrne as well. When I went there, I wanted to do furniture and he wanted to do sculpture, but we were told we were doing drawing and painting, that was it. I felt kind of lost, like I didn’t really know why I was there while everyone else seemed so focused.”

Celie Byrne on a recent visit to view her father’s work at Paisley Museum, photo ©OneRen
For a long time, it’d be fair to say that Celie Byrne led a nomadic life. After completing her studies, she ran the bar at The Art School as well as another pub in Dundee before going to Chicago to escape her ‘overly loving parents’. In the process, she also had her son Nathaniel in her final year at art school.
She put her creative journey aside for a long time until she began to teach classes for college and further education. It was during this period that everything that was once out of place clicked once more. This led to a major turning point in 2011 where she began to get some momentum and recognition for her incredibly deft and skilful work.
“A lightbulb went off when I was doing a little watercolour class. I kept working, then got sacked from a dishwasher job. I thought, what am I going to do? At that point, my mum said ‘why don’t you do a portrait of your son and submit it for the BP Portrait Award?’ He’d just turned 17 and I painted him playing his guitar in his bedroom. I called it Teenage Dirtbag and before I knew it, the piece was in the exhibition and it was a real catalyst for thinking that I was doing something worth doing.”
Naturally, Celie has some phenomenal stories about her father, not to mention insight that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. For one thing, she unveiled an untold history of his legendary Slab Boys trilogy of plays which could only have come from someone who was there at their inception.

John Byrne, Newport on Tay, 1984
“It was my mum that loved the theatre, she’d drag us there all the time,” Celie recalled. “My dad would be out in the garage painting, but he’d be the taxi driver to take us to the Citizens every Sunday. You wouldn’t know what you were getting to see and at times, it was really grown up stuff. My mum was thrilled, but my dad would be snoring as he’d have been out in the garage all day.
“It was my mum who pushed him into writing it, as he was funny. She’d look over his stuff and edit it. My mum was a voracious reader, so she could see the whole idea of the trilogy. She’d say, ‘right, you’re talking about this day where they’re all going to the town hall, that should be a separate play. Same with this other one that should be set ten years later’. She had the vision for it, but his genius was in the words and putting it all together. If my mum was still alive, she’d be able to tell you what all it was about.”
As the daughter of one of Scotland’s most beloved creatives, Celie Byrne is frank about the large shadow that was cast by him. But, due to her endless desire to ‘graft’, Celie would’ve never allowed this to define her, nor use her dad’s reputation as a crutch.
“It’s been that way ever since we were growing up here,” she reflected. “Back then, we were just the odd ones. My dad drove this old Riley car and would be walking around with his scripts in a poly bag. He wasn’t doing what all the other parents were doing. It feels like if you don’t fit in, you just get picked out and that happened to my brother and I.
“When we got to Art School, [John Byrne’s acclaimed TV series] Tutti Frutti had just been on TV. So, my brother had a terrible time being another John Byrne who was drawing and painting. They were critiquing us, but it felt like the tutors were just saying the stuff they couldn’t say to my dad.
“It felt like we didn’t have an identity, we were just someone’s son or daughter. Eventually, my brother changed his name to Simpson, my mother’s maiden name, and he had complete autonomy after that. It’s not something we make a big deal out of, you don’t want to be that name-dropping wanker (laughs).
“There was never any nepotism in my family,” she continued, “that’s for sure. I’m glad there wasn’t. We’ve done it the honest way and just worked hard.”

Celie Byrne, photo ©OneRen
Although their work has its own approaches, there was one occasion where she did get to collaborate with her father, serving as an apprentice as he painted a stunning mural on the auditorium ceiling of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh.
“I got him that gig actually!” Celie revealed. “He used to live in Marchmont and I was working in a Tesco at the time as a part time job. Someone I went to college with came in and saw me there and they knew an architect who was in charge of that project. They asked if I could get in touch and within a week of that person coming to see me, he’d already done the design and everything.
“So, I became part of a team of five working on that. I was actually there the other day, there’s a couple of bits that are flaking off now, so I just said ‘give it to me!’ I absolutely loved that. It was the first mural I was ever a part of and did a few across Kelty and Dalgety Bay.
“At the moment, we’re trying to get one of my dad in Paisley,” Celie excitedly elaborated. “It was a project that got put forth a while ago, but there was concern over having my dad smoking a cigarette. But, you can’t have a photo of him not smoking (laughs)!”
“Now, people have said ‘we have to get your dad in a wall and you’re the one to do it’. I think it should be in Ferguslie Park. There’s a couple of really good murals up there, so it’d fit in perfectly. Even now, I’m finding out that there’s rooms in the town hall named after characters from Cuttin’ a Rug and that’s amazing. Because when we left here, we were just a bunch of oddballs (laughs).”

Young Celie sat alongside the record sleeve that John Byrne designed for The Humblebums, circa 1969
Now almost a year since her illustrious father’s passing, Celie Byrne remains humbled by the outpouring of love that came their way after his passing. Now, there is no better way for her to honour his legacy by striving forward, seeking to create beautiful, thought-provoking art of her own while also helping the community that she has reconnected with.
“He’s just our dad to us,” Celie clarified. “I think people think we think of him as John Byrne, but we don’t. It was really sweet to see all the appreciation of his work. It’s been a slow transition moving back here, but it’s starting to come good and I think I’ll be doing some cool stuff.
“I recently went down to the archives to see some of my dad’s work, including some of myself and my brother’s drawings that were in there. When the museum opens, I’m hoping to do workshops, because what better place is there than there? Moving back here, it’s been a transition. But, I really think it’s starting to come good!”
For more from Celie Byrne and to engage with her work, keep up with her on Instagram @celiebyrne