Brian Shields and his sister Ann were born in Liverpool, purportedly in Kinder street wash house. Brian acquired the nickname 'Braaq' in his school days, on account of his artistic ability and the influence that the French artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had on him as a boy, particularly Georges Braque, a misspelling then transformed Braque into Braaq. He was the fourth child of twelve and his father, Dennis, was an established artist. One of his brothers, also called Dennis, is a sculptor and painter based in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.

Brian held his first exhibition in 1974 and by 1977 was invited to hold four shows in London by a gentleman called Noël, to whom the artist ...