Contemporary Art

Capturing the Zeitgeist : John Byrne's 'Patrick' Era

11 March 2026

Charlotte Riordan

Few collections offer such a revealing insight into the formative years of John Byrne. Comprising a remarkable group of works from the artist's celebrated 'Patrick' period, this collection highlights the diversity of Byrne's early talent and the emergence of the distinctive visual language that would come to define one of Scotland's most original creative voices.

The works come from the family of Byrne's local priest, Father Tom Jamieson of Renfrew Parish, and provide a rare glimpse into a pivotal chapter in the artist's development. Created during the years in which Byrne adopted the alter ego of the naïve painter 'Patrick', the collection captures an artist experimenting with identity, storytelling and image-making long before he became a household name as the creator of The Slab Boys and Tutti Frutti.

The 'Patrick' story has become one of the most intriguing episodes in modern Scottish art. Conceived as both artistic experiment and social commentary, Byrne's invented painter challenged assumptions about authenticity, taste and artistic value. Yet beyond the mythology lies a body of work of remarkable originality, revealing the wit, observation and narrative instinct that would characterise Byrne's career across painting, theatre and television.

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Capturing the Zeitgeist : John Byrne's 'Patrick' Era with Celie Byrne

Join Artist & John Byrne's eldest daughter Celie Byrne here, as she recalls this period of their lives in vivid detail.

Byrne's Early ‘Faux-Naive’ Style

“My father doesn’t know I’m sending this to you as he paints for his own enjoyment and does not exhibit his work…”, began the letter Byrne sent to London’s Portal Gallery in 1967. So commenced the infamous ruse in which he got his foot in the door of the London art world by pretending to be a "primitive" self-taught artist named Patrick, a 71-year-old retired labourer from Govan. Though he confessed the truth to the directors before it could spin too far out of hand, the gallery continued to collude with Byrne to present him to their buying audience as a fashionable so-called “Primitive Painter”… until he was ultimately outed in The Observer as an alumni (of above average sophistication) by the Glasgow School of Art itself. He had several successful exhibitions with Portal between 1968 and 1971.

“His doll-like children…occupy a fantastical world that implies nostalgia for a Victorian childhood – although the cats and monkeys that inhabit this Rousseauvian landscape have a sharp-toothed menace. But the Victoriana is as contemporary as the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, part of the repertoire of British Pop Art established by Peter Blake’s fairground wrestlers or Joe Tilson’s wooden constructions.”

Robert Hewison in ‘John Byrne: Art & Life’ 2011

The work, 'Homage A Hockney', is accompanied by an inscription by Byrne on the reverse:

“HOMAGE A HOCKNEY by John Byrne /Patrick. On the Occasion of David Hockney’s Major Retrospective Show at the Whitechapel Gallery, London covering the period 1961-70 with 46 paintings, 45 drawings and 47 prints. In this painting some Hockney paraphernalia is included (the T.V. set, the Palm Tree, the Spectacles and a paraphrase of Tired Indians, Rocky Mountains, 1965, and the graffiti) in a bid to chronicle the painting scene (Hockney’s) over the past ten years. The Ty-Phoo tea pack, the swimming pools, the latter realist (totally representative) paintings have all been referred to by implication in this simple turning out of Hockney’s cerebral drawers. John Byrne, April 1970.”

JOHN BYRNE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1940-2023)

HOMAGE A HOCKNEY – 1970

Signed ‘Patrick’ lower right, inscribed with title, bears inscription by Byrne verso, oil on board

Music & Art: John Byrne & the Soundtrack of a Generation

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, music became a significant influence on John Byrne's artistic practice. This was a period of extraordinary creative energy in the west of Scotland, as musicians, writers and artists emerged from Glasgow, Paisley and the surrounding industrial towns to shape a new cultural identity. Byrne was at the heart of this milieu, moving easily between the worlds of visual art, theatre and popular music.

Bound together by a shared enthusiasm for music, film and contemporary culture, Byrne formed close friendships with many of the leading figures of the Scottish folk and rock scene. His distinctive artistic style and imaginative approach to design made him a natural collaborator, and he soon became the artist of choice for a number of influential musicians.

Among his most notable commissions were designs for The Humblebums, the folk group formed by Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly, whose blend of humour, storytelling and social observation echoed many of Byrne's own interests. He also produced artwork for the internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Donovan, helping to shape the visual identity of an artist whose music captured the spirit of the era.

In 1971, he commissioned him to design a cover for HMS Donovan, an album of children’s songs. They also worked on an animated film together – Donovan’s answer to Yellow Submarine - relocating for a month to Los Angeles together. The project never came to full fruition, however. In 2015, the two friends reunited to stage an exhibition dedicated to Donovan's career at Glasgow's House For An Art Lover which was curated by Byrne and featured many works pertaining to their artistic collaborations.

JOHN BYRNE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1940-2023)

H.M.S. DONOVAN (ARTWORK PERTAINING TO THE RECORD)

Signed ‘Patrick’ lower left, oil on panel laid on block board

These collaborations reveal an important aspect of Byrne's career. Long before he became celebrated as the creator of The Slab Boys, Tutti Frutti and Your Cheatin' Heart, he was already contributing to Scotland's wider cultural landscape through his visual art. His album designs demonstrate the same wit, originality and narrative instinct that would later define his work across multiple disciplines.

The relationship between music and art remained a constant throughout Byrne's life. Many of his paintings possess a performative quality, populated by characters who appear poised between reality and imagination. Like a songwriter, Byrne had an instinct for atmosphere, memory and storytelling, drawing inspiration from the people and cultural movements that surrounded him.

JOHN BYRNE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1940-2023)

UNTITLED (MUSICIAN), C.1973-75

Signed ‘Patrick’ lower right, initialled ‘JB’ to head of instrument, oil on board

The largest oil in the collection is heavily influenced by this trip to America – the country Byrne had been enthralled by since his childhood. During the trip Byrne became disillusioned with his glimpse behind the Hollywood façade, instead developing a fascination with the characters he encountered in the music scene of LA’s dive bars. When he returned to Scotland he produced a series of monumental oils inspired by these experiences. The subtext of many of them are critical of black exploitation and the Vietnam War. The clothing of the musician here is redolent of American Civil War uniform, which potentially alludes to a darker undercurrent of symbolism.

JOHN BYRNE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1940-2023)

THE BEATLES - C.1969

Signed ‘Patrick’ lower left, oil on board

In 1969 Byrne, still under the guise of ‘Patrick’, created a painting of The Beatles for his December show at the Portal Gallery that year. This was a reference and reaction to the fact that Portal attracted a starry clientele, with some of the biggest names in British showbusiness of the day becoming frequent visitors, including Michael Caine, David Niven, David Bailey and The Beatles.

The painting was purchased by the art director and graphic designer Alan Aldridge, who went on to use it as the frontispiece to The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, published in 1969. It was later used as the cover of The Beatles Ballads LP twelve years later.

Rumours suggest the original largescale work was lost by EMI records, and so this work is a rare surviving early version.
In the image, Byrne represents each Beatle seated beside a sort of ‘spirit animal’, perhaps which he felt best approximated their nature. Yoko Ono can be glimpsed in the crystal ball held by John.