IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 28 September 2026

98 67 John Shinnors (b.1950) LONG BLACK TRAIN [DIPTYCH] oil on canvas; (framed together) signed on right edge of the canvas; titled on reverse 39.25 by 55in. (99.7 by 139.7cm) Frame Size: 45.75 by 61.75in. (116.2 by 156.8cm) Provenance: Artist’s studio; Private collection Long Black Train first appeared in John Shinnors’ exhibition 12 New Paintings at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Waterford in 2021. The Waterford exhibition had a number of paintings featuring a brightly coloured level-crossing. This was a new motif in Shinnors’ well-stocked, inspirational arsenal. Its emergence can be traced to the recently installed (2013) Lisnagry level-crossing on the road between Limerick city and Castleconnell. Shinnors late wife Catherine was born in this County Limerick village and the couple would regularly visit her family there. Their route from Roxborough in the south of the city would take them past this striking addition. The red of the gates would not have escaped Shinnors eye on these jaunts. He has a penchant for cadmium red and his paintings featuring that assertive and useful (it fades less) colour tend to be popular with his buyers. The drama of the level-crossing gates in the foreground dominates the painting but on closer inspection we notice that there’s a lot going on in the background, with a few characteristic, out-of-kilter Shinnors touches thrown in. The eponymous train is discernible only via four muted rectangles - it is devoid of all attendant detail. A mystery train. Beyond the train are shadowy trees, elements that are rare indeed in a Shinnors’ work, aside from a few early landscapes. Although he does claim to paint landscapes for his own pleasure in his country studio outside Limerick. The title of the painting is a nod towards the country singer Josh Turner who wrote a song of the same name back in the late 1990s. Shinnors spent a period as a busker in London in the late Sixties and is well familiar with the metaphorical possibilities of the train and its use by musical luminaries such as Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. It’s suggestive of escape and freedom and life going on elsewhere. Behind the foreground pyrotechnics, there’s a lonesome feel to the image. A curious aspect of the painting is that the level-crossing gate in the foreground seems at the wrong angle to the passing train - not parallel as you’d expect. This leads you to the type of investigation and close scrutiny that Shinnors art encourages. Perhaps he is following Emily Dickinson’s famous dictum: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”. John P. O’Sullivan, August, 2026 €30,000-€40,000 (£25,640-£34,190 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot67