The First Touch

A surreal recollection of intimacy, vulnerability, and initiation, The First Touch captures a formative moment in my life; my first sexual experience at Casa De Tia Olga, a house of ill-repute in Brazil.

The figures, stripped of realism, embody emotional archetypes: one passive, rooted, almost ritualistic; the other bold, performative, and half-concealed. The candle and scattered orbs suggest ceremony, transaction, and awakening. Set against a fevered red backdrop, the scene evokes both eroticism and estrangement.

I chose this style because it lets me speak in a language beyond words. My figures aren’t anatomically correct because the moment wasn’t either. By choosing this style, I protect the story while revealing it. I invite viewers to feel before they understand. That’s the power of the work is instinctive, layered, and unapologetically personal.

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Artists are often obsessive about their particular discipline and none more so than Nicholas Broughton who considers a day without painting or sculpting to be incomplete as he is a self-confessed “addict to the canvas”.

A fascination with the human condition and a childhood passion for painting and sculpture have crystalised in him resulting in a desire to paint pictures that are honest expressions of his inner feelings and personal experiences – “from the heart”. His varied background has no doubt contributed to this fascination for the vibrancy of life that he so confidently depicts in his paintings and sculptures.

Nicholas was born in Mali, in the part of Bamako which is now the home of the Malian jazz scene. From Mali he moved to Brighton in England at a young age and from there to Bangkok, Thailand, where he spent the next six years of his life absorbing the colours, smells and tastes of the Orient.

His most formative years were spent in Brazil where, in addition to learning Portuguese, he learned to adapt to a fascinating and variegated scene where different cultural backgrounds and traditions blend together. This time in Brazil helped to inspire his current "Favela" series.

The Brazilian artist Di Cavalcanti was an early influence but after he started painting seriously, the influence of Picasso, Modigliani, and Chagall has dominated his canvasses and sculptures. Nicholas’s clarity of idea and image, and distinctive sense of colour attest to his daring individual stance in making powerful impassioned statements.

“My paintings do not have to be considered beautiful as long as they make people think and instil in them the desired emotion. People see things differently, feel things differently and react to life differently, therefore a piece of art forms a unique relationship with each individual”. Nicholas.