The world-famous musician and comedian’s iconic artworks have no less impact than one of his legendary comedy sketches. The faceless figures possess an extraordinary self-awareness and humanity. Devoid of emotion or expression, their anonymity opens them up to individual interpretation, creating a unique bond with the viewer.
Featured by The Times and documentaries including Billy Connolly: It's Been a Pleasure, his minimalist drawings have been described as 'poignant', 'funny' and 'enigmatic' by critics.
It was on a rainy day in 2007 that Billy first put pen to paper. Taking refuge from the grey drizzle of Montreal, Canada, he entered an art shop with a twinkling curiosity and left with an armful of supplies and the urge to create. Back in his hotel room, his felt-tip pens and sketchbook formed a portal for his imagination, and over the next five years his drawings evolved into his debut fine art collection, Born On A Rainy Day, which launched in 2012.
Billy's highly-collectible series of limited edition prints and stainless steel sculptures is as humorous as his own comedy, with elements of his own life unexpectedly appearing throughout. Billy Connolly is unarguably one of the world’s finest stand-up comics. He has also been an acclaimed actor and musician; now he has turned his rich talents into visual art, with many hugely popular collections of limited edition prints and steel sculptures for Castle Fine Art.
“I’d never drawn in my life until this point, but I just started drawing weird islands and carried on drawing.”
Billy creates his art at his Florida home, where he draws a plethora of wondrous images, from extinct Scottish cats and horses with two legs, to Teddy Boys and flying babies. Whatever takes his imagination, he gets down on paper for his avid collectors.
In 2023, a coffee-table book of Billy’s art was published by Castle, featuring over 300 published and unpublished works, and he was thrilled with the result. “I didn't know there were so many pieces. I thought I must have 12 or 20. I don't know how many, but there are over 300 in the book. 300! That's ridiculous. It's lovely.” “Some of them are quite virginal and purist and they go for the good side of life. And others are quite dodgy and a bit bad taste, which pleases me greatly. They're of a world of their own. There's no similarity whatsoever in writing a book and drawing; drawing oozes from you. It takes hold of part of what's in your head and makes you do it on paper”.
Billy began his working life as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, and he has celebrated that job with drawing entitled ‘And on Monday, God Made the World’, of which he is very proud. As well as being available as a silkscreen print, it later became a stainless-steel sculpture almost two metres high on a black granite base.
“It means a lot to me because he's a welder, and I'm a welder,” says Billy, referring to his pre-fame career. “I keep thinking what welders will think when they see it. Welders on the Clyde will love it because it’s an angel, as they already think they're pretty much godlike!”.
Billy’s work began in black and white, but over the years, he has added colour to his work, which has taken it into a whole new dimension. “The people at Castle Fine Art asked me if I wanted to try colour on some of the pieces, and I did, and they just came to life. It was a breathtaking move; I was flabbergasted, and now they’re so popular that I find myself signing hundreds of prints.”
These colourful new pieces included ‘Windswept and Interesting’, showing a flamboyant Teddy Boy shaking his maracas, which was based on Billy’s teenage experiences in the Glasgow dance halls. “I used to wear those loud socks like him for many years. I had an Italian three-button suit and I can just see myself in the bathroom at the Locarno Ballroom in Glasgow fighting for the mirror, with the smell of Old Spice wafting through the place. You’d have a skinny tie with a big tie pin to hold it down, and cufflinks that looked like eagles landing on a ruby”.
Even though Billy no longer performs as a stand-up comedian, he still loves connecting with the collectors who buy his art. “I have a lot of time for the fans because I owe them everything. And, particularly in Scotland, people speak to me and five sentences in they go: ‘Oh my God, it’s Billy Connolly! I thought you were my cousin!’. And that’s a lovely thing – not many people get that in their lives. When you get beyond the autograph stage, you become like a relative”.
In celebration of Billy's book launch, each purchase of Billy’s works will be complimented with a copy of ‘The Accidental Artist’*, allowing you to discover Billy’s unique and humorous insights into his journey as an artist.
*while stocks last.
The six new colourful limited edition artworks include pieces which see Connolly recalling his Glasgow childhood, living in the Scottish countryside and a bit of Scots history alongside an insight into his favourite hobby, fishing, as practised near his Florida home. He also remembers visiting India for his episode of the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? and a visit to his Scottish home by his close friend, the late Robin Williams, so these latest releases see Billy revealing his personal stories in his art.
Alongside the exclusive mixed media original artworks, are Billy Connolly's one-off 'Two For The Road - Rambling Man Unique Colour Editions'!
Based on his previously sold-out hand-signed giclées, ‘Direction’ and ‘Two For The Road’ have been reimagined in polished stainless steel in these new sculptures. Alongside these, we present a special limited edition giclée of 'Two For The Road', with the addition of striking green colour to Billy’s trademark black-and-white drawings.
In his unmistakeable monochrome style, Connolly has revisited his own original style with the return of black and white drawings. While there’s pathos and darkness, the humour and wit reflected in the new artworks is a true contemplation of Connolly’s character.
The artist celebrated a decade with Castle Fine Art in 2022 – and his 80th birthday – with eye-popping new limited-edition silkscreen artworks and sculptures, as the latest instalment of his acclaimed Born on a Rainy Day collection. The new silkscreens are made in bold, dynamic colours, making them just as colourful as the personality who created them.
There is a new stainless steel tabletop sculpture of ‘Hang Gilder', his drawing featuring a winged figure in a meditative pose , and in a first for Billy, his ode to the Clydeside welder, ‘And on Monday, God Made the World’ is available in a monumental 1.7 metre-high sculpture.
Take off into the wild blue yonder with the very special limited edition series of works by Billy Connolly, 'Free Flight Variations – A Series of 365 Unique Prints', showing a man wearing stripy trousers, borne aloft by stripy balloons. Every piece is a special hand-signed artwork that comes in 365 individual colour variations, and each piece is different to the others, offering collectors the exciting opportunity to acquire a 'unique' Billy Connolly artwork which is almost like owning an original drawing!
After much anticipation, we're delighted to reveal Sir Billy Connolly's debut deluxe coffee table book, 'Born On A Rainy Day'. A must for collectors, the 496-page book features witty anecdotes from The Big Yin alongside his incredible portfolio of graphics, including original and never-seen-before titles. What's more, each book comes with a hand-signed limited edition graphic of Billy's self portrait.
"Two For The Road - Rambling Man Unique Colour Edition" is a unique colour edition of the celebratory limited edition released alongside Billy’s latest book ‘Rambling Man – My Life On The Road’. The limited series of uniquely coloured editions, each with it’s own different colour, are inspired by Billy’s days as a gigging folk singer and the whole folk music scene of the 1960’s, showing our two heroes in full swing.
In this extraordinary release, Billy Connolly's acclaimed artwork ‘Scotty Poser’ returns, but this time with 24 varying colour palettes, each breathing new life and meaning into the hand-signed artworks by Glasgow's most beloved son.
His first artwork of a Scottish terrier, lovingly referred to as ‘Scotty Poser,’ was one of Billy’s first pieces to be fleshed out in colour and was a record-breaking sell out within hours of launch. Now, an impressive collection of 24 colour variations demonstrates the artist’s use of colour that, in his words, “had a profound impact on me. I didn’t realise it would do so much to bring the drawings to life”.
The relationship between Connolly collectors and his art is a very special one, as Billy’s pieces draw you into his personal world and are almost a visual autobiography. Each piece is hand-signed by The Big Yin himself. Born On A Rainy Day has showcased Billy Connolly's legendary wit initially through humorous black-and-white drawings and later through the use of colour in his personal Escheresque surrealism. What started as an exclusively monochromatic body of work has become an incredibly bright and vibrant collection of art that combines Billy’s powerful black and white drawings with metamorphic colour palettes.
The stunning graphic from Billy Connolly is inspired the design of his first-ever autobiography, Windswept & Interesting. With only two titles available, this matching quartet of limited edition artworks is hand-signed by the award-winning comedian and features four vibrant colourways.
The humorous giclée prints highlight the vivid blazers of Billy's 'Teddy Boy' characters, who have taken to the stage with maracas, brothel creeper shoes and clashing socks. Featured on the internal front cover and end pages of the Waterstones Exclusive Edition of Billy's autobiography, the dynamic figure is inspired by his memories of the 1950s British youth subculture, which saw teenagers embracing rock 'n' roll and R&B music and experimenting with fashion.
Billy says: "Teddy Boys were windswept and interesting. They chose their clothes to differ from everyone else in society. And that was the hippie thing as well, just choosing your clothes, wearing policemen’s capes and big hats with snakeskin bands. It was a good time. They're just Teddy Boys dancing with maracas. My favourite is the yellow one. He's the most gaudy and 'clashy'."
Bringing humour to even the most uncertain of times, Billy Connolly unveiled the sixth release from his sell-out fine art collection, Born On A Rainy Day, in October 2020. Featuring six giclée prints, portfolio sets and a beautiful stainless steel sculpture, the immensely popular body of work was showcased on the ITV documentary Billy Connolly: It's Been a Pleasure. Billy told cameras: “Drawing has given me a new lease of life. I managed to get pictures together and people like them, which surprises me and amazes and delights me.”
The collection of six limited edition pieces is based on characters from the Glaswegian's imagination. He was inspired to create the series following a rainy day in Montreal in 2007, when he was on tour. After buying some felt tip pens and a sketchbook, he sketched islands - which in time became his humorous, detailed shapes. Given Billy’s huge popularity in his native Scotland and beyond, it’s no surprise that news of his collection launch and appearance at our gallery went viral overnight. He was subsequently featured in titles such as BBC News, i News and the Scottish Sun. The collection of monochrome limited editions was a success, followed by two sold out instalments of the series.
Commenting on the success of the launch, Billy said: "I feel very proud and happy that I've done it - they look so good in their frames, hanging up. I'm astonished that it's got this far." Fellow comedian Vic Reeves added: "If I look at a painting and it makes me smile or makes me sad, then it's achieved the effect it should have. I can smile at most of these."
Stay updated on the latest offers and additions to our Billy Connolly original and limited edition art collections. You'll also be kept up to date with the latest new arrivals at Castle Fine Art, exclusive promotions, plus other subscriber-only benefits.
The book brings together the best of Billy's drawings with a selection of his most beloved stories. In celebration of the launch, each purchase of Billy’s works will be complimented with a copy of ‘The Accidental Artist’*, allowing you to discover Billy’s unique and humorous insights into his journey as an artist.
Art, like humour, has the inspiring ability to unite, spark conversation and evoke emotion. We invite you to dive into joy and laughter with our curated selection of trending satirical and sarcastic artworks, featuring pieces from Billy Connolly, James McQueen and Peter Smith. Browse our collectors' favourites below.
Continuing his voyage into colour, Billy Connolly returns with the latest instalment in his iconic ‘Born On A Rainy Day’ series. Now available to purchase online and in our galleries nationwide,...
An original work of art is something totally unique. When you buy an original piece from Castle Fine Art, you're bringing home a special link with the artist to live in your home!
Bringing back his iconic style for a brand new series of characters, Billy Connolly presents the latest instalment of his 'Born On A Rainy Day' series! Returning to his roots,...
Inspired by his own personal experiences, the highly anticipated continuation of his iconic collection sees Billy experiment with a new selection of comedic characters and colour palettes.
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