The Hunt Museum Limerick hold their first Open Submissions Exhibition between Friday 5th December 2025 and Saturday 28th February 2026. I am delighted to have been chosen for the exhibition. My painting, Lovers on a Train, is taken from a train trip between Dublin, Cork and Limerick. I noticed the couple sitting across from me were an island unto themselves. Touring Ireland, their purchases spread between them on the table, while they were absorbed in their screens. So, the tableau involves a still life, a classical composition– like Venus and Mars, and a landscape whizzing by beyond the window. The perfect composition for me. I like to capture the moment to make a visual short story in a particular time and space. People together and all alone; in trains, bars, cafes and cars. I enjoy doing it and hope that others enjoy looking at it. I’m looking forward to heading back down to Limerick. By train, of course.
xxharrison 
Absolutely wonderful Shane! Congratulations for being included in the exhibition.
Thanks Marion. I’m very excited about it.
Wonderful painting, Shane. You capture a beautiful moment that invites one into the scene to speculate on who his young couple might be and where are they going. The relaxed and intimate companionship within the cocoon of the carriage is accentuated by the sense of speeding through the exterior landscape that provides a backdrop of an unknown destination and future. I love this painting. It’s not surprising it was chosen for this first Hunt’s Museum exhibition.
Thanks Dermot. Very much appreciate your words. I am still surprised, but pleased (of course). Stories keep on coming however we may choose to express them.
It looks like the gentleman on the painting suspiciously looking at you while you made the picture of them. 🙂
Well spotted, Alexander. I think it makes a good connection between the viewer and the subject. I hope they would like the painting.
I think that’s the case, otherwise they would have objected.