ONE of Scotland’s best-known artists has revealed his whole-hearted backing for his home town to become UK City of Culture in 2021.

John Byrne, writer of The Slab Boys and Tutti Frutti, said he is fully behind Paisley’s cultural bid.

The artist, 76, made the comments as he prepared for the opening of a new show at the Fine Art Society in Edinburgh.  He also offered his take on Brexit and the US presidential election.

Byrne, who grew up in the Ferguslie Park area of the town, said he is right behind Paisley’s bid.

He said: “Paisley is a remarkable place. I hope to be involved and I support the bid. I support it wholeheartedly. I thank Ferguslie Park every day of my life, for providing me all the information I ever needed about life, it was the best place I have ever been.

“It was happy circumstance we ended up there [as a family], the language, the life, everything. I couldn’t have got a better education.”

Byrne’s new paintings, which feature in the Edinburgh show, feature haunted scenes – notably with moonlit settings.

He said paintings such as Twixt the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, which depicts the Devil on fire in a dark scene, were not inspired by the turbulent news of 2016.

“I could not care less about politics. Politics is a guise adopted by crooks, criminals – but they are not all like that,” he said.

“I mean I am vaguely interested in Brexit and Donald Trump. The Brexit thing came as a surprise, but Trump less so, because it was him, it was inevitable in a way, because it is a great story, it is like a Hollywood movie, a comedy.

“You couldn’t make it up, as they say. It’s not a bad thing: he is part-idiot and part-genius, Trump. I don’t mean he is admirable, but he is not an evil murderer, he is not evil.”