One of Ireland’s most significant and distinctive painters, Shawcross has made an international reputation in the genres of portraiture and still life. Accomplished in watercolours and in oils, he is both a masterly draughtsman and a spectacular colourist. He revels in exploring combinations of complementary hues and sensual contrasts of great intensity and drama. Matisse is sometimes suggested as an influence on his work and it is easy to see why. In all his work, Shawcross deliberately reveals the act of painting. Splashes, stains and broadly painted borders, frames within a frame, emphasise that these are painted representations by showing how they are created. This respect for the integrity of the painted surface is shared with his friend and Ulster contemporary, Basil Blackshaw. It is natural that one of Ulster’s most inspiring artist-tutors for over 40 years would show a fascination with the mechanics of painting itself. Retiring his post at University of Ulster in 2004 to devote his energies entirely to painting, Shawcross has undertaken portraits, still life and nudes in a series of enormous, exuberant canvases to great critical and popular acclaim.
1940: Born in Kearsley in Lancashire. The family environment was conducive to personal expression and from an early age Neil Shawcross was attracted to the pleasure and discipline of drawing.
1960: Part-time lecturer at Lancaster College of Art
1962: Appointed part-time lecturer at the then City of Belfast College of Art. Neil was in at the start of the new style of course delivery that soon developed into programmes of more experimental art and design ranging from the college’s own Diploma (now degree courses) to the setting up of the Pre-Diploma (now Foundation) course.
In his first year in Ulster, Neil also was one half of a two-person show at the old Arts Council Gallery and had a one-person show at Queen’s (University Belfast). A significant honour and a signpost to future practice occurred in 1966 when he won first prize in the Gallaghers Portrait Competition.
This short biographical sketch does not begin to list all the major exhibitions, commissions and prizes that Neil Shawcross has had in the forty years since he came to this Province.
Shawcross continues to love the way that serendipity can play a role in the final outcome of a work of art but he has never lost the belief that chance should only play its part after the discipline of planning has shaped the structure, the composition of the piece. "I’m still conscious of, in fact I’d say I’m in awe of the rectangle," he said recently. So the speed with which he works and those legendary one-sitting only portraits plus his open love of popular and pulp imagery might wrongly disguise the fact that the themes he tackles (until, as he points out, the theme exhausts itself) come from a reservoir of constantly refreshed experiences learned years ago in Lancashire.
1958-61: Studied at Lancaster College of Art (NND Painting Special Level)
1953-58: Studied at Bolton College of Art (Intermediate Certificate)
Awards
2001: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1998: James Adam Prize, R.U.A.
1997: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1997: Belfast Arts Club Small Works, Prize Winner
1994: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1993: Monaghan Open Exhibition, Joint 1st Prize Winner
1991: Wellington Park Hotel Prize, R.U.A. Exhibition Belfast
1990: Arnotts National Portrait Award, Dublin
1987: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1982: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1978: Royal Ulster Academician
1979: Travel Scholarship Arts Council of Northern Ireland
1978: RUA Gold Medal Winner
1975: RUA Conor Award
1966: Gallaher Portrait Prize
Other Activities
Consultancy
Young Arts Scheme, Arts Council of N. Ireland.
Annaghmakering Advisory Board ( Tyrone Guthrie Arts Centre)
Arts Committee Newtownabbey Borough Council
Research:-
1993: Visiting Assistant Professor, Penn State University State College USA
1991: Residency , Vermont Studio Centre, USA
1987: Residency, Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts USA
Neil Shawcross Bio (click to view)
