Born in 1940 in Lancashire, Neil Shawcross studied at the Bolton College of Art (1955-1958) and the Lancashire College of Art (1958-1960), he then moved to Belfast in 1962 to lecture in the Belfast College of Art and became full-time at the Ulster College of Art and Design in 1968.
Primarily a portrait painter, his subjects have included Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, novelist Francis Stuart, former Lord Mayor of Belfast David Cook, footballer Derek Dougan and fellow artists Colin Middleton and Terry Frost. When painting portraits, he never paints a background as he feels this will take away from the personality of the person that he is painting.
Neil is also a print maker and has designed large scale stained glass installations for the Ulster Museum and St. Colman’s Church, Lambeg, County Antrim.
He has exhibited nationally, with one-man shows in London, Manchester, Dublin and Belfast, and internationally in Hong Kong and the United States, and his work is found in many private and corporate collections.
In 2018, Shawcross donated to Belfast City Council a collection of 36 paintings dedicated to ‘Writers of Belfast’ in a show of appreciation to his adopted home city.
Hamilton House has a super collection of Shawcross portraits in reception for all to enjoy.
