Painting & Printmaking School of Fine Art
Kyle Blain
My work centres on everyday moments of working-class life, often drawn from personal memories and old family photographs. Inspired by my upbringing in Clackmannan, a small town in central Scotland, the paintings revisit familiar, often overlooked scenes. Like holidays and football kits or quiet afternoons at home. I’m especially interested in the kind of images that feel deeply intimate yet universal and speak to a kind of collective memory and shared social history.
I use a mix of emulsion, acrylic, and spray paint to try and capture the atmosphere and emotional weight of these moments, blending bold mark-making with moments of quiet reflection. While the people I paint are usually members of my own family, they become a way of talking about the bigger picture, serving as an honest depiction of working-class life, with all its humour and complexity.
I studied Fine Art, Painting & Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art, after completing an HNC in Fine Art at City of Glasgow College. Alongside my studies, I’ve built up a professional practice through commissioned work and solo exhibitions across central Scotland, including Clackmannanshire and more recently Edinburgh. My work has also been recognised by the Scottish Parliament for its role in community outreach, particularly through art workshops I’ve led in local schools.
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“Common People”
Common People is a painting project that centres everyday lives often left out of traditional portraiture. It focuses on the quiet moments that quietly reveal who we are. It explores social rituals and routines of sitting in the living room or standing in the garden, small moments of contemplation. These works give time and attention to people who are usually overlooked, focusing on clothing, posture, and setting to speak to ideas of class, identity, and belonging.
Rather than telling grand stories, the project honours the small, familiar ones that shape us. Through paint, these moments that fly by are made visible, asking viewers to slow down and recognise the value in the ordinary.
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