George Shaw – The Sly and Unseen Day

George Shaw is a Nottingham based artist whose show, ‘The Sly and Unseen Day’, is at the Baltic, Newcastle until May 15th. He paints with Humbrol enamel paints which are traditionally used to paint Airfix models.

I visited the exhibition, which focuses on his childhood home of Tile Hill Estate, Coventry, last Thursday and was blown away by the works. It’s the first time in years that an exhibition of paintings has actually had an emotional effect on me, the last time may have been a Francis Bacon exhibition at the Tate.

The smell of the exhibition space is so reminiscent of my childhood spent painting models and the works themselves are stunning in their beauty and photorealistic quality. As with all reviews of his work I need to say that they are slightly unsettling but entirely beautiful and comforting at the same time.