Shinnors then took himself to London for a time where he did a number of menial jobs and attended Hornsey Art School on a part-time basis, before returning home in 1969.
[5] Shinnors is an abstract painter who has built up a solid and recurring set of visual motifs that include scarecrows, lighthouses, cows and boats.
In 1987 he was inducted into the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland with fourteen other artists including Deborah Brown, Michael Ginnett, Anne Madden and Raymond Piper.
[9] In the same year Shinnors joined with his mentor Jack Donovan and Henry Morgan in showing at the Limerick City Gallery of Art.
His work may include other personal narratives and concerns that enter the paintings but ultimately it's the pigment, the brush and the canvas that carry the only significance for him.
[13] Shinnors recent work at the Gallery of Modern Art, Waterford shows a departure from his limited palette of dark tones and a move towards a more colourful and vibrant set.
[15] The poet John Montague wrote a poem, Scarecrow, dedicated to the artist which was inspired by the well-used Shinnors motif.