George Shaw (b.1966)

Scenes from the Passion: The Unicorn

Shaw grew up in Tile Hill, a housing estate on the outskirts of Coventry. After finishing an MA at the Royal College of Art he returned to photograph the area and embarked on a series of paintings called Scenes from the Passion. Shaw explained in 2002: "I started to make these paintings out of a kind mourning for the person I used to be: an enthusiastic, passionate teenager".

Using Humbrol enamels (as used by generations of boys to paint Airfix models) Shaw builds up layer upon layer of paint in restrained colours that subtly convey light and shadow, weather and time of day. He also carefully edits out changes to the landscape of his teenage memories and these features combined with the complete absence of people give his paintings an eerie intensity.

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