The self-taught hand behind the machines.
The artistShorty Baird is a self-taught artist from Ballymoney, in the heart of Northern Ireland’s road-racing country.
There was no art school, no formal training — just a pencil, a stubborn streak, and a community full of stories worth telling. His first pieces came out of local connections: a few sketches shared among friends, a request to capture a rider everyone in the town admired.
Word travelled the way it does in a small place. One commission led to another, and the machines, the riders and the corners of the course everyone knew began to fill his canvases. What began as a hobby became a calling.
Alongside the racing work, Shorty paints the landscapes on his doorstep — the Causeway coast at last light, the temples and strands of the north, the quiet Glens of Antrim. Two very different subjects, chased with the same eye for a moment.
- Based in
- Ballymoney, Co. Antrim
- Training
- Entirely self-taught
- Subjects
- Road racing · Motorbikes · Landscapes
- Working since
- Local commissions & beyond
“It all begins with an idea.Everything else — the paint, the hours, the chrome — is just chasing that first spark until it’s real.”
Four ways to catch a moment.
Each subject asks for a different tool. The medium is chosen to fit the feeling, never the other way round.
Acrylic
Bold, fast-drying — perfect for the energy of a race scene.
Oil
Slow and luminous — reserved for landscapes and light.
Graphite
Quiet, precise portraits where every line counts.
Coloured pencil
Fine detail work, building depth layer by patient layer.
Got a piece in your head already?
Commissions are always open. Tell me the story and we’ll make it permanent.