Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 21st October 2019

78 54 John Shinnors (b.1950) Loop Head - Still Morning, Windy Evening signed lower right and titled verso oil on canvas 117 x 167.5cm (46 x 66in) Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner €20,000-30,000 (£17,699-26,548) John Shinnors is a phenomenon in modern Irish art. His work veers close to abstraction and his palette is boldly sparse, yet he has managed to retain a wide following among an art public that would traditionally be wary of abstraction. More, he is quite well known beyond art circles, gaining public acceptance and recognition to a degree that is unusual. He is also closely identified with Limerick (where he was born and where he still lives and works), even a Limerick school of painters. He acknowledges the importance of Jack Donovan as an influence, but his style is entirely his own and based on his own life and environment. The motifs in his paintings are usually tied to specific locations and memories. They include mackerel glimpsed on the fishmonger’s counter, a slightly sinister scarecrow, Friesian cattle, washing on the clothesline, badgers, swallows and Loop Head lighthouse. Shinnors excels at instilling a sense of drama in the everyday and has a knack for capturing the ordinary from disorientating angles and in unusual configurations and combinations. His wide mix of motifs mostly share a predominantly black-and-white character. He has a strong sense of graphic design and he skillfully employs monochrome patterning enlivened by bursts of bright, vivid colour, including red and yellow. This diptych arrangement sets quiet morning against turbulent evening. The white-washed buildings are defined in the slightly chill light of dawn. The life-ring, sounding a note of unease, is flushed with a garish, threatening light, standing against a lively, agitated ground. Aidan Dunne, September 2019

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU2