The tragic suicide of Philip Clairmont in 1984 robbed Nigel Brown of a close friend and supporter. The controversial Clairmont series was his way of dealing with this bereavement.

Notable for its use of banner-like text, Brown's striking Clairmont Painting formally references funerary iconography in its epitaph-like design. The imagery operates as a portrait of their friendship, expressing a series of shared iconographic references such as the black singlet, the heart and skull