The painter John Byrne's (1940-2023) Steven Campbell Study constitutes a prepatory sketch on paper with charcoal for a portrait of his friend, the fellow Scottish artist Steven Campbell (1952-2007). Byrne's meticulously drafted study features an extensive and detailed sketch of Campbell's head, prominently occupying the upper half of the paper. The lower right corner is taken up by an outline of Campbell sitting on a chair, the contours of his body skilfully mapped out with a few simple lines, while the head, once again, bears considerable detail created through intricate shading. Byrne's signature is situated in the left corner of the paper alongside an inscription: "Portrait head + 'thumbnail' for The Artist Steven Campbell".

The friendship between Byrne, a polymath whose artistic talent extended to theatre and television, and Campbell, a prominent member of the New Glasgow Boys in the 1980s and 1990s, ensued after their first meeting in 2005, resulting in both creating portraits of one another. Byrne's oil portrait of Campbell, The Artist Steven Campbell, which appears to have been based on these sketches, is held by the Paisley Museum and Art Galleries. The painting features a slightly altered, life-sized version of the sitting Campbell that Byrne presents in this initial study. Having received formal training at the Glasgow School of Art, Byrne produced a variety of portraits and self-portraits throughout his lifetime. While some of these are conventional in style, others border on caricatures. This versatility evidences his great technical skill as a painter, alongside his preference for incorporating playful elements into his art. 

John Byrne, born 1940

Born in Barshaw, Paisley, Byrne worked as a "slab boy" at A.F. Stoddard's carpet factory in Paisley after leaving school. He enrolled at Glasgow School of Art in 1958 to study painting, transferring to Edinburgh College of Art in 1961 for a year before returning to Glasgow. He was awarded the Newbery Medal and a travelling scholarship that allowed him to go to Italy in 1964. On his return to Scotland he worked as a graphic designer for Scottish television before going back to work for A.F. Stoddard as a carpet designer. During the 1960s and 1970s he produced a number of naive, dreamlike paintings influenced by Henri Rousseau, which he signed "Patrick" - his father's first name. These works were first exhibited in a one-man show in 1967 at the Portal Gallery in London. The exhibition attracted much attention as people speculated on the identity of the artist.
Byrne's interest in film and popular culture took off in earnest when he started working on an animated film with the singer Donovan in 1970. The following year they travelled to Hollywood but the film narrowly failed to gain a nomination for an Academy Award. After returning to Scotland Byrne began designing theatre sets for a wide variety of productions, including Billy Connolly's The Great Northern Welly Show. He also designed a number of record albums and painted the Beatles for the Illustrated Beatles Lyrics (the work is signed "Patrick").
Sometimes Byrne's prodigious talent as a painter has been in danger of being overshadowed by the immense success of his work for stage and television. The fact that his painting is not better known is also because in 1975 he decided not to exhibit any more pictures, and did not do so again until 1992, when his reputation as a writer and director was firmly established. His best-known success on stage are The Slab Boys and Tutti Frutti.
Throughout his career Byrne has been able to turn with equal success to writing for the stage and television and to theatre design, as well as painting and illustration in a bewildering variety of styles.