Neil Shawcross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neil Shawcross MBE, RHA, HRUA | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 March 1940 (age 85) Kearsley, Lancashire, England |
| Education | Bolton College of Art, Lancaster College of Art |
| Known for | Portraiture, nudes, still life, printmaking, stained glass |
| Movement | Post-Impressionism |
| Awards | Gallaher Portrait Prize 1966 RUA Conor Award 1975 RUA Gold Medal 1978, 1982, 1987, 1994, 1997, 2001 RUA Academician 1978 Arnolds National Portrait Award, Dublin 1990 James Adam Prize 1998, Sandford and Leinster Galleries Award 2006 approx. |
Neil Shawcross MBE, RHA, HRUA (born 15 March 1940) is an artist born in Kearsley, Lancashire, England, and resident in Northern Ireland since 1962. Primarily a portrait painter, his subjects have included Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney,[1] novelist Francis Stuart (for the Ulster Museum), former Lord Mayor of Belfast David Cook (for Belfast City Council),[2] footballer Derek Dougan and fellow artists Colin Middleton and Terry Frost. He also paints the figure and still life, taking a self-consciously childlike approach to composition and colour.[3] His work also includes printmaking, and he has designed stained glass for the Ulster Museum and St. Colman's Church, Lambeg, County Antrim.[2] He lives in Hillsborough, County Down.
Shawcross studied at Bolton College of Art from 1955 to 1958, and Lancaster College of Art from 1958 to 1960, before moving to Belfast in 1962 to take up a part-time lecturer's post at the Belfast College of Art, becoming full-time in 1968. He continued to lecture there until his retirement in 2004.
The academic career of Shawcross includes a residency at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 1987, a residency at Vermont Studio Center in 1991, and a visiting assistant professorship at Pennsylvania State University in 1993.[4]
Shawcross is a Patron of the charity YouthAction Northern Ireland.[5]
Awards
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Ulster Academy of Art in 1975, and was made a full Academician in 1977.[6] He won the Academy's Conor Award in 1975, its gold medal in 1978, 1982, 1987, 1994, 1997 and 2001, and its James Adam Prize in 1998. Neil Shawcross is also a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA).[7] He was awarded the Gallaher Portrait Prize in 1966.[8]
Queen's University Belfast conferred an honorary doctorate upon Shawcross in 2007 (Duniv).[9]
Shawcross was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to arts in Northern Ireland.[10]
