Big Art Show

14/10/2026

With Halloween 🎃 fast approaching here's some artworks from this year's show to inspire this year's costumes!

13/10/2026

Attention participating artists Big Art Show 2026. updated SOLD ARTWORKS list here

(opposite Paisley Centre)Key DatesSubmissions Open: 1st March 2026Submissions Close: 31st May 2026Hand-in: 20 July - 1 Aug 2026Exhibition Opens: Sat 29 August 2026Exhibition Closes: 14 November 2026Hand-back: 16-28 November 2026Sales InfoCommissions 30%+VAT ( VAT is on commission element only).  S...

13/10/2026

Great to see Paisley's biggest art show on the giant billboard on Inchinnan Road. Jamie Munro's 'David' image is looking fantastic! Thank you Paisley First!

This wonderful art exhibition, which opened at the end of August, has already attracted thousands of visitors through the door, and we've sold over £20k in artworks. 50% of the artists in the show are from Renfrewshire, Glasgow and Ayrshire. View over 1000 artworks, sculpture, prints, and textiles on show until 14th November 2026. Happy days!

Keep your eye on The Art Department, Paisley Ltd!

13/10/2026

We missed this image from Matthew Smith's nature faves last week - this is by Linzi Hay from Bridge of Weir and is titled 'Hard to get a Spot Close to Home'. It's painted in acrylics and is priced at £145.00

07/10/2026

Matthew Smith was visiting the show yesterday and we asked him to pick his favourite artworks connected to nature. Here's his favourites:

Jane McInally’s “Three Rooks” is one i return to on each visit. It makes me think of Macbeth’s witches, and the Skeksis from the Dark Crystal. I’m amazed at how much character, mood and mischief this line drawing holds! What are they up to, these rambunctious corvids? And what is the one lumbering towards us going to do next? Brilliant stuff.

Rebecca Scott’s "Hare in the Long Grass”. Hares are strange creatures, almost belonging to another world. This one’s staring eye captures something of their innate weirdness, and it's slightly unnerving.

Rhona Wilson’s “Hide and seek”. If you’ve ever seen otters swimming together you’ll never forget their playfulness. Also, Otters are mustelids, the same family as badgers. Enough said.

Margaret Tomlinson’s “Juvenile Goldfinch”. Fantastic wee birds, and Margaret’s drawing conveys something of the innocence, attentiveness and promise of this young bird figuring out its environment. And unlike Fabritius’ goldfinch, this one is free.

Linzi Hay’s “Untitled”. Each time I’ve visited the exhibition, I’ve been drawn into this painting even if I’m stood yards away. The movement, the mossiness, and the sound of water - I want to climb through the frame and sit there for a while.

D. Regan’s “Capercaille” is splendid. I love its beard (yes some birds have beards), and it’s magnificent side-eye - a good reminder that you do not mess with a Capercaillie.

Poppy Dempster’s “Mr Fox” is so beautiful. A youngish fox perhaps, full of curiosity. What is he looking at? I think we should be told.

Lynn Semple’s "Early morning wake up call”. Blackbirds are among my favourite sounds of nature, and this immediately brings their song to mind, and excellently shows the blackbird’s distinctive perch. Great umbellifers too!

Morven Howell’s “Rozelle, into the woods” evokes lichens, mosses, trees living, dying and dead, and all the fantastic vibrant complexity of a woodland floor. I want to get in there and have a rummage.

Heather Thomson’s “Float” is a magical and infinitesimally short moment of poise and colourful iridescence. I love it.

07/10/2026

It's Sculpture Wednesday! Today's selection of works can be found in Gallery Two upstairs at the Art Department.

Alexander Ramsay's robots - Skytron and Spyro 🤖

Kevin Cantwell's 'Mr Blue' rabbit *SOLD* 🐰

'Maud' the Pigeon, 'Rubber Bob' the fish and 'Mr Hammertop' - a south African Hammercop bird by Claire Cabrie.

Another Alexander Ramsay sculpture called 'Catch Patch'.

We're open till 4pm!

06/10/2026

Today's Featured Artist is Ellie Muir. Ellie is a painter and visual artist born and raised in Paisley. She is currently in the final year of her fine art degree in Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art. In this series of works, she explores using a solid red underpainting. She then works with oil in one layer intentionally leaving gaps to expose the red underpainting. These gaps are a link to the themes of memory that she explores in her work. See more of Ellie's work here:

05/10/2026

Today's featured artist is Matthew Smith. Matthew was born in Lancashire in 1973 and studied Philosophy at University, Matthew has worked in various social care and mental health services in Glasgow and Paisley and has made his home there. He enjoyed art at primary and secondary school, but his teachers steered him away from taking it further. In the intervening years he barely painted at all, but in 2018, he happened to walk by the newly opened Made In Paisley, and on a whim, he popped in for a nosy around. It was great learning from Caroline and Sandy in the couple of years he attended there. Without their excellent venture on the high street, he probably wouldn’t have picked up his brushes again.

Matthew paints or draws when he can. He fits it in around work, family, volunteering, and walking his dog. Sometimes he uses acrylics, sometimes oils. Hills are something of a theme. He has completed the Munros, and he is slowly working his way through the Corbetts. Perhaps he’ll finish the Wainwrights sometime next year.

Matthew also enjoys nature and conservation - during the Covid years he co-founded the Friends of Jenny’s Well, and is often found attacking Himalayan Balsam or planting wildflowers at this excellent nature reserve in Paisley, as well as being involved in Paisley Natural History Society. So, this is another theme in his artistic efforts.

And then there’s Badgers. A favourite thing is to sit quietly in some dusky woods and watch badgers going about their badgery business. They get an undeserved bad press, beleaguered on all sides by road traffic, housing development, and persecution by humanoids. He sometimes does a bit of badger surveying for the excellent Scottish Badgers charity and urge you to look them up. Hence the featured badgers. Matthew love badgers.

03/10/2026

CALL FOR ENTRIES for Xmas 2026 show. 1000 Eyes: Visions of Paisley inspired by Benjamin Disraeli's famous quote "keep your eye on Paisley". We're looking for visions of Paisley, past, present and future and anything inspired by the eye as an artwork.
FREE to enter 6 works, no hanging fees. Show run 1 Dec 2026 -30 Jan 2027.

(opposite Paisley Centre)Key DatesSubmissions Open: 7th FebruarySubmissions Close: 31st October 2026Hand-in: 16-30 November 2026Exhibition Opens: 1st Dec 2026Exhibition Closes: 30th January 2027Hand-back: 1st-6th February 2027Sales InfoCommissions 30%+VAT ( VAT is on commission element only).  Sal...

03/10/2026

Today's Featured Artist is Mark T. Shepheard.

Mark received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Following graduation, he pursued successful careers in metalsmithing, interior design, and hairdressing before retiring from those professions. Throughout each stage of his career, he maintained a dedicated studio practice, continuing to draw, paint, and create prints.

Shepheard exhibited extensively in local galleries throughout Virginia and has work in corporate collections as well as a museum collection in the United States. In 2025, he relocated to Scotland with his husband after nearly twenty years of visiting the country with an art travel group.

Since moving to Scotland, Shepheard has exhibited twice at The Art Department and in several Ayrshire galleries. He is an active member of local life-drawing groups and continues to expand his printmaking practice through screen printing at Glasgow Print Studio. His work reflects a lifelong commitment to observation, craftsmanship, and creative exploration across multiple media.