MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Alan Brash
I am a figurative abstract impressionist painter, recently completing a Master of Letters post-graduate studies at the Glasgow School of Art. My work explores queer identity through a deeply personal lens. Using oil on canvas, I reflect on moments of resilience, vulnerability, and the evolving sense of self.
This body of work is shaped by my experiences of growing up during the late 1970s and 1980s, as a gay man often meant navigating a double life. I respond to the societal and political pressures of that era—forces that sought to suppress queer lives through targeted shame and rigid ideals of family and masculinity.
Now, later in life, I find myself discarding the shame I once carried for simply being who I am. Painting has become a way to examine that internalised shame, and to let it go. It’s an act of reclamation—of self, of story, and of space.
The figures in my paintings are either anonymised or self-portraits. This allows me to shift between emotional distance and direct self-examination, deepening my connection to the work while inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences of identity and belonging.
Using figure, colour, and space, I construct compositions that explore the emotional impact of those years—the damage endured, and the quiet strength that emerged. The domestic and internal spaces I depict serve as sites of memory, tension, and quiet resistance. Some works are overtly autobiographical; others speak to shared queer experience, rooted in survival and the pursuit of joy.
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IMG_2817
A Reflection of a Queer Life
This body of work is a deeply personal exploration of queer identity, intimacy, and vulnerability, presented through figurative oil painting. The paintings navigate autobiographical terrain, often positioning the male body—sometimes as a self-portrait, sometimes anonymised—as both subject and vessel for emotional memory.
Through the use of bold colour blocking and stark compositional framing, the works create a psychological space where introspection, longing, and quiet resistance unfold.
The figures are frequently caught in moments of stillness—nude or semi-dressed, alone or in intimate domestic settings—evoking both presence and absence. These moments are not performative but tenderly observed, suffused with a sense of interiority. Whether reclining in the embrace of a partner, absorbed in digital solitude, or contemplating a sun-drenched landscape, the subjects appear both grounded and adrift, shaped by the passage of time and memory.
Colour plays a powerful role: saturated fields of blue and ochre create emotionally charged atmospheres, while crimson reds and pale flesh tones accentuate the body’s fragility and sensuality. There is a recurring dialogue between the figure and the environment—landscapes and interiors feel both familiar and uncanny, echoing themes of queer domesticity, alienation, and belonging.
At the core of the work is a reclaiming of narrative and visibility. The artist, now older, turns towards past and present selves with compassion, shedding inherited shame and affirming a space for queer tenderness, reflection, and strength.
