John Shinnors

Original canvas. The work is in excellent original condition. Held in a painted wood frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5575 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Having painted using what the artist describes as 'a very super-realist style' in the late 70s, Shinnors developed a more fluid visual vocabulary in the 1980s. However, it was a crucial occurrence in the early 1990s that inspired the move toward the bold abstract style he is so well known for today; '...I was in Kilkee, out on George's Head. It was a miserable day, with a grey mist over everything. Looking down, there was a tiny white figure moving against the rock, and I saw a flash of yellow in the sky. It was a child playing with a kite, and something clicked. It had all the elements - the human presence, air, sky and sea, a kind of dynamic interaction, and me, an interpreter, which is what I count myself as now...' (Shinnors in conversation with Aidan Dunne, John Shinnors, Gandon Editions, Kinsale, 2002, p.18)

Having developed this distinct vocabulary of representation, Shinnors' recent works are among his most assured and accomplished. While non-representational on the surface, his paintings remain rooted in reality, drawing upon a myriad of experiences. Recurring images ranging from kites to lighthouses appear, and in the present work as referenced in the title, scarecrows and birds - even Mars - are the sources of inspiration. The language is seemingly endless, and it is Shinnors' unique ability to transform them to the canvas in a rich tapestry of colours, textures and interplaying shapes. Inventive and thoughtful, the paintings demand consideration, and the viewer is rarely disappointed.

Born in Limerick, Shinnors still lives and works in that city and was the subject of a major retrospective at the Limerick City Gallery of Art in 2001 which toured to the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo and the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork.