Noel Brannan was born in Tynemouth, Northumberland on Christmas Day 1921. In 1926 the family moved to Cleethorpes, where he grew up in a very art-orientated household: his father, Edward Brannan was a professional artist and his younger brother Peter Brannan, was to follow the same path.
Noel Brannan studied at Lincoln School of Art (1947-52) and the Leicester College of Art (1951-2) before taking a teaching job in Hinckley. He was one of the painters chosen for Jack Beddington's 1957 book Young Artists of Promise. He had a great love of industrial landscapes such as mines, tile works, chimneys, quarries, canals and areas of wasteland, which were his favourite sketching ground.
