Alan Byrne was born in Liverpool in 1946. After leaving school he attended evening classes at Liverpool College of Art. In 1964 he went to the London College of Fashion full time. From 1967 to 68 he attended Hornsey College of Art to do a foundation course and then moved to Walthamstow College of Art where he studied Fine Art (Painting) under Jack Smith and Fred Cuming R.A. After graduating in 1971 he worked in Community Arts and taught at various levels, mostly part time while exhibiting his paintings and photographs.

Alan’s paintings and drawings are mostly figurative and include portraits, landscapes, sea pictures, still lifes and nudes, though the sea pictures are really metaphors for moods and emotions. He is influenced by the Ukiyo-e printmakers of Japan such as Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige as well as Western artists such as Holbein, Schiele and Toulouse-Lautrec, and, in the case of the sea pictures, the American Colour Field painters, Morris Louis, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. His parallel career as a photographer came about because he couldn’t decide which area of study he preferred so he did both. Influences are Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Bert Hardy and others. Alan exhibits photographs, drawings and paintings regularly and has works in many private collections.