You can be part of Gary’s great park painting
Paisley artist Gary Byars is looking for Buddies’ faces to include in a new piece of work featuring the town’s Barshaw Park.
Gary, 49, wants to feature hundreds of townspeople in the painting, which will show the popular east end park.
The painter, who runs the Sunshine Gallery in the Paisley Centre, is inviting folk to be immortalised in acrylic colours with a special edition painting marking the town’s 2021 bid for UK City of Culture.
Gary was famously commissioned by St Mirren FC to paint portraits of cup-winning captains.
He was also the one of the original 1986 artists of the Charleston Drum, which still leads the annual Sma’Shot Parade to this day.
Gary said the painting’s perspective will look down from the hill and over the pond, with Paisley architecture in the background.
It will be broken into five sections, with Lowry-style characters in deep background and with more detail applied to each character as they get closer in perspective.
Part of the painting is being given over to businesses, charities and groups, with their own illustrated marque and title.
Other sections will require people to hand over photos so as to have their likenesses recorded.
At the very front of the work, there will be room for six or seven highlydetailed characters.
Gary has worked out a sliding scale of costs, ranging from £2 to be depicted as a very basic outline, to £150 to be featured in fine detail in the foreground, so as to cater for all budgets.
Businesses, charities, groups and organisations wishing to feature in the painting can also buy a section of the work.
To get involved and pick up an entry form, visit the Sunshine Gallery at the Paisley Centre.