Alan Brash - Figurative Abstract-Impressionist Painter

My paintings offer a tender and powerful exploration of queer identity, memory, and emotional resilience. Through oil on canvas, I present a series of intimate figurative works that move between solitude and connection, drawing from personal experiences of growing up gay and the evolving complexities of selfhood.

The subjects—often self-portraits or anonymous male figures—occupy sparse domestic interiors or abstracted outdoor settings. They are presented in quiet moments: resting, gazing, absorbed in thought, or in the comforting embrace of a lover. These figures are neither idealised nor dramatised; instead, they feel real, human, and emotionally grounded.

Bold fields of colour—intense blues, hot ochres, and deep reds—frame and isolate the figures, generating a sense of psychological space. The visual language is both direct and symbolic, with colour and posture conveying inner states that words might resist. There is a cinematic stillness to these compositions, drawing the viewer into moments of vulnerability, intimacy, and subtle defiance.

As an older artist reflecting on a life shaped by concealment, resilience, and eventual liberation, I bring a renewed clarity and sensitivity to themes of shame, visibility, and queer domesticity. His work invites us to pause and witness—to see the quiet strength in bare bodies, soft gestures, and the spaces we call home.