Former Leeds businessman relishes post-retirement life as a painter in Cookridge converted barn

“Some years ago, I was threatening to paint with my wife, so she went and bought me the easel and the paints, and they sat there collecting dust for a couple years at least,” he says.

“One day, I had that dreadful man flu and didn't go into the office. I couldn’t watch Jeremy Kyle and thought: ‘What can I do?’ So I remembered the paints and I had a canvas upstairs, and by the time Karen came home in the evening I had done this painting of the Buddha, and that was it, I never looked back, I’ve been painting ever since.”

Alan, 69, was born in Halifax and while still at Heath Grammar School found work as a bobbin boy in the local mill aged 14 (“very Dickensian and it always makes me smile,” he says). Even then, he knew he was destined for a life of creativity.

“We were pretty gobsmacked that I passed the 11-plus to go to a grammar school. My parents were very working class. Anyway, I went there and I was probably the bottom of the class in most subjects and top of the class in art. Not too bad at English either. So even back then I knew I wanted to be in the creative industries.

“I think if you really want to be, then you will. There's a lot of people that study art that are not necessarily passionate about keeping it going.”

For two summers he was also a “clippie” – a conductor - on the Halifax buses.

But he went on to attend Bournemouth College of Art, taking a communications, advertising and marketing course.

In 1975, he headed back to Leeds to work at Brunnings Advertising Agency, and later moved on to become creative director at The Advertising Bureau.

By the end of the 1980s, Alan wanted to move into packaging design and had established his own business - known as the Rogue’s Gallery, and later Creative a La Carte - which still gave him the chance to work with a number of advertising agencies.

In 1989, he went into partnership to develop a business based in Yeadon, near Leeds, called Pilot Design, which eventually grew to employ 35 people. His business partner moved on, and in 1991, he was approached by the Principles Advertising Agency, and he sold the company.

In 2001 he set up the SPIRIT of, a Leeds company which specialised in branding and packaging design. That lasted 20 years, but Alan says the twin hurdles of Brexit and Covid-19 meant that, despite his best efforts, the business “nosedived”.

He says: “I was involved in a lot of brand development and packaging for the food and drink industry, particularly food, for the manufacturers. And then come Brexit, everyone stopped spending. It was like (going) off the edge of a cliff. People stopped investing in developing new products and ideas for the retailers because they just had to. Of course, then there's the pandemic, which again, threw chaos into an awful lot of the retail industry. So once again, the manufacturers were just being incredibly cautious.”

He adds: “I had a fabulous career. I thoroughly enjoyed my whole working life. But when you're in a company, paying your staff but not paying yourself, it doesn't take a genius to work out that's not great business. And that's what was happening, really. I had to make a few redundancies and then, ultimately, I thought: ‘Hang on a minute, this is just not picking up’.”

After shutting down in late 2021, Alan, now spends his time painting at his home studio, situated in a converted barn looking out onto the fields between Cookridge and Bramhope, where on a good day he can see Emley Moor mast.

One of his favourite subjects to paint is animals, because he loves the level of detail.

“When I was working, my attention span for detail was pretty poor,” he says. “I wanted to get the design done, get the concept worked out, then hand it over to the other lads to work up. But somehow when I’m working on an animal or portrait, it’s that attention to detail. I love realism. You'll notice from the work it's all pretty realistic stuff.

"I tried loosening up my style but it always ends up back to being pretty realistic.”

He also likes to create portraits of public figures who inspire him, and his works include those of David Bowie, Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Princess Diana and Dame Vivienne Westwood.

“I just get inspired by people that I admire,” he says. “I think one of the first ones I did was Muhammad Ali, which is looking at me here in the studio, I’ve still got it.”

His portraits are complemented with bespoke frames charting the history of his subject in a montage, which is then varnished.

Although an unusual subject for him, one of Alan’s favourites of his own is a painting of the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.

Once he has decided on a subject for his paintings – which are all for sale – he craves the blank canvas as the start is his favourite part of the process.

“I love every painting I do,” he says. “I really do. I become obsessed with them.”

For more information about Alan Rogan’s art, visit his website: www.alanrogan.com