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.
[3] His work also includes printmaking, and he has designed stained glass for the Ulster Museum and St. Colman's Church, Lambeg, County Antrim.
[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] 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.
[20] In 2015, Shawcross exhibited a collection of six foot tall book covers inspired by original Penguin paperbacks at the National Opera House in Wexford, Ireland.