Byrne occupies a unique position in Scotland's cultural life. He trained at Glasgow School of Art, which he left in 1963 as one of their star painters.... His paintings, whether of famous friends, self portraits (of which there are many) family or scenes from his imagination, are executed with rigorous skill, but an old fashioned approach. He paints moody portraits and surrealist scenes, which don't follow current taste. Self portraits in various guises are often psychologically intense – a brooding inward gaze, or with religious symbolism such as the artist covered in thorns or a particularly dark self portrait in a camouflage jacket. His defiance, almost a refusal to engage with new ideas about art, doesn't always make him popular, particularly within Glasgow's art scene.... (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/john-byrne-and-tilda-swinton-the-painter-and-his-muses-9560508.html)