{"id":654115,"date":"2025-12-25T13:07:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T13:07:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:07:50","slug":"scottish-artist-ross-muir-unveils-latest-work-paying-tribute-to-billy-connolly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654115\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish artist Ross Muir unveils latest work paying tribute to Billy Connolly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Scottish artist Ross Muir\u00a0has unveiled a brand new painting paying tribute to one of Scotland\u2019s most cherished cultural figures, Sir <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/topics\/billy-connolly\/?ref=au\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Billy Connolly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Billy Connolly<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Launched on Christmas Eve, Billy Cone-lly marks the first time Muir has ever painted Connolly, despite having grown up watching, listening\u00a0to\u00a0and quoting him throughout his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The painting brings together two instantly\u00a0recognisable\u00a0Glasgow icons: Billy Connolly himself, and the long-running tradition of placing a traffic cone on the head of the Duke of Wellington statue\u00a0outside GoMA in Glasgow&#8217;s Royal Exchange Square.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Billy Cone-lly\u00a0depicts a smiling Connolly with the cone proudly perched atop his head, set against Muir\u2019s trademark bursts of bold\u00a0colour\u00a0and expressive paintwork.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/news\/national\/uk-today\/25625273.sir-billy-connolly-makes-rare-public-appearance-florida-film-fest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sir Billy Connolly makes rare public appearance to pick up top honour;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">Sir Billy Connolly makes rare public appearance to pick up top honour<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/news\/25669147.peter-kay-shares-update-sir-billy-connolllys-health\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Peter Kay shares update on Sir Billy Connolly&#039;s health;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">Peter Kay shares update on Sir Billy Connolly&#8217;s health<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/news\/25370785.billy-connolly-burns-taught-wild-swimming\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:What today&#039;s wild swimmers can learn from Billy Connolly&#039;s swimming in the North Sea;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">What today&#8217;s wild swimmers can learn from Billy Connolly&#8217;s swimming in the North Sea<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The artist said: \u201cBilly is such a massive cultural icon that, if\u00a0I\u2019m being\u00a0honest,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0always been a bit nervous about painting him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;But this just felt like the right time and the right context. After the year a lot of people have had, we could all do with more Billy \u2013 his\u00a0humour,\u00a0lightness\u00a0and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The new work follows a standout year for Muir. In October, he released Cona-Lisa\u00a0&#8211; his Glaswegian reworking of the Mona Lisa, which sold out quickly and drew widespread attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More recently, his collaborative work Two Sons, created alongside renowned Scottish painter Peter Howson, was also a sell-out success, adding to a growing body of work that blends humour,\u00a0resilience\u00a0and working-class Scottish identity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Billy Cone-lly\u00a0continues that theme, celebrating not just a man, but a shared cultural icon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For more information, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/rossmuirart.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:rossmuirart.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><strong>rossmuirart.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottish artist Ross Muir\u00a0has unveiled a brand new painting paying tribute to one of Scotland\u2019s most cherished cultural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,200087,29834,200088,4022,77,200089,200090,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-654115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-billy-cone-lly","11":"tag-billy-connolly","12":"tag-cultural-icon","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-ross-muir","16":"tag-scottish-artist","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115780367394502110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}