Ruairidh Macleod has won the 2015 John Byrne Award. Macleod is a sixth year student at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and he won the award for his musical improvisation, De Profundis.

Now in its sixth year, The John Byrne Award challenges 16-19 year olds in Edinburgh to produce a creative piece of work in any medium - a painting, a dance or even an HTML code. The awards, sponsored by Cairn Energy and University of Edinburgh, were presented by the artist and playwright John Byrne at a ceremony at The Playfair Library in Edinburgh last night.

The 2015 Awards stimulus for entries was Scottish trade unionist Jimmy Reid’s famous ‘Alienation’ Rectorial address, given to students at the University of Glasgow in 1972.

There were 10 shortlisted entries which presented to the John Byrne Award judging panel. Of these, Mr Macleod was chosen as the winner, and the panel made three commendations.

johnbyrneaward.org.uk

Scottish artist John Lowrie Morrison, Jolomo, pictured, is the subject of an exhibition in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, opening next Thursday.

Jolomo@the Mitchell is the artist’s biggest show this year, and will include a major selection of new paintings of the West of Scotland. The show will also include a selection of rarely seen portraits and a number of new large-scale panoramic works, a shift away from his signature square-format for the first time in 40 years.

The exhibition will also reveal another side to John’s work: rawings of crofters in Argyll, and striking portraits of disabled children done when he was a student at Glasgow School of Art.

All the paintings, excluding the retrospective works, will be for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds going to Carers Trust, of which John and his wife Maureen are vice-presidents.

jolomo.com

A second performance of Bert Inspired: A Concert for Bert Jansch has been added to the Celtic Connections line up following the first concert selling out in four days.

Robert Plant, Bernard Butler with special guest Ben Watt, Jacqui McShee accompanied by Mike Piggott, and Ryley Walker will perform on February 1 in the main auditorium of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

On January 28 a concert celebrating a classic night at the 1998 Meltdown Festival curated by John Peel, comes to Oran Mor when The Nectarine No9, The Secret Goldfish, The Leopards, and special guests, present Bent Meltdown (Redux) in tribute to the legendary Peel.

Glasgow duo Honeyblood make their Celtic Connections debut on the bill of the Roaming Roots Revue in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on January 23 as part of a line-up that also includes Virginia soul maverick Matthew E. White.

celticconnections.com