LOVE is the thing | Imogen Alabaster

Imogen Alabaster is a contemporary artist living in Leith. She has been exhibiting nationally for over twenty years and appeared on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 where her portrait of actor Saskia Reeves was personally chosen by the sitter. 

Imogen is known for her emotive oil paintings and one of her pieces is on permanent display at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after its acquisition from the Royal Scottish Academy Graduate Show in 2006.  

Imogen’s artworks focus on love: a warm gaze a tender embrace and celebrating the joy of the everyday. These images are both highly personal and universal. She is drawn to innocuous moments of happiness and affection and enchanting people in her life. Her self-portraits explore identity motherhood and transformation - mourning a former self while embracing the strength of a new one. 

Lyrics have served as titles for her paintings borrowing fragments of her favourite songs to mirror her feelings of love for her subjects. She uses a gloriously vivid palette in oils and expressive brushstrokes to build up an intuitive poetic yet honest portrayal of her sitters.