Art has always been a part of my life.

Circumstance sometimes took me away but passion always led me back. Over the years the one consistency was an annual tradition of designing and creating my own Christmas cards.

They always contained an image or an idea that linked back to my own life. A certain tree silhouetted against the sky, the melting wax of a long burning candle, a particular bauble on my mother’s Christmas tree.

Friends and family always told me I should try selling them but I never saw them as anything more than a little personal touch at a special time of the year.

Then other ideas came; moments shorn from the landscape of my own experiences. The carpet of blooming Daffodils outside my Aunt’s house, my first born child in my arms, kissing my partner, the moon on a cloudless wintry night.

I started drawing, teasing images from these ideas, images based on moments that have profoundly touched me in the hope that they might touch someone else.

Throughout this process my goal has been to create something pure, something simple and something resonant. Small moments that we all share, moments that never lose their echo or their power.

My name is Sinead Shanahan and this is Shinay Art.

I hope you enjoy my work.

Thanks for looking.