Art exhibition celebrating Glasgow's immigrant women
'Mother Glasgow' is a collection of oil painting by Scottish artist Gerard Burns for International Women's Day
Last updated 6th Mar 2026
Renowned Scottish artist and Glaswegian Gerard Burns launches his “Mother Glasgow” project as “a celebration of multiculturalism within the city of Glasgow, and the essential role of women in our society.”
Launching on International Women’s Day, the exhibition is showcasing fifteen of his oil painted portraits, displaying women from all over the world, who have chosen Glasgow as their home.
Painting “a vivid picture of modern Glasgow”, the women featured form a diverse cohort of ages, professions and backgrounds.
“Mother Glasgow” seeks to offers an artistic perspective on the role of women and immigrants through the stories of the subjects.
Speaking to Clyde 1 he said: “An oil painted portrait is an amazing thing.
“So, to be presented with an individual via an oil painted portrait given the love and the care and the attention that’s gone into making these things, there’s a chance that you might challenge perceptions”.
“One of the things I set out to do was to tell a slightly different story about my hometown."
Burns continued: “One of the things I set out to do was to tell a slightly different story about my hometown.
“Obviously, immigration and the narratives around immigration at the moment are fairly negative.
"It's easier to demonise or stigmatise a group of people from a distance, it's much more difficult when you are presented with a person.
"Particularly if you are then given some insight into that person's story."
Burns hailed the diversity of his models and explained the process through which they were selected: “It’s an amazing group of women that I could never have found had I gone out and sought them.
“We have an 87-year-old Italian lady who’s been here since she was 17 and the very last portrait is a 9-year-old Ukrainian girl”.
"I just love Glasgow"
Another of the portraits is of Bauer Media’s Director of News and Sports in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Lorraine Herbison Hollinshead.
She said: “I just love Glasgow. The friendliness of the people, the ‘craic’ and the architecture, it’s such an honour to be asked to take part in this project in the year I celebrate working 25 years at Glasgow’s number 1 radio station Clyde 1. I think you could say I am now ‘Clyde built’.”
Among the other women is a nurse, a ballet dancer, a linguist, a violinist, a restaurant owner, a printer, a nun, politicians, artists, activists, and a religious leader.
Burns’ stunning oil paintings are also being projected across the city on Ocean outdoor digital billboards.
The Scottish artist has forged a prestigious career through his artwork with an esteemed clientele that includes politicians and A-list celebrities.
The Glasgow man paints what he knows and believes his artwork is “a more traditional approach to painting”.
The artworks will be part of an exhibition that travels the country and visits some of Scotland’s most prestigious institutions including the Glasgow Collective, the Mitchell Library and the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.
Burns is also hoping to take the artwork around the world with plans to Shanghai and Nuremburg in the works.