George Shaw...

After I looked up George Shaw I realised I had seen  his work before at the Frieze Art Fair in 2010. I had even made a point of selecting his work to put into my sketch book due to it's relation to my project then. I had added notes "All the images look deserted and unattractive, cold and lonely. Scenes similar to what you imagine a homeless person living in - Only the houses look like they have been lived in and have been left alone.'  

It was interesting reading what my initial impression of his work was before reading up what the pieces were actually about. Like Edgar Martins exhibition the houses look like they have been abandoned. When reading up on George Shaw I found that he chose these images from the Coventry council estate he grew up in. I like the idea of these derelict places being made somewhere of importance and gaining sentimental value through Shaw's paintings.

All of his paintings are impressively realistic to the point where you have to look twice to check if it is in fact a photograph. This fascination with the process of his painting technique adds to the curiosity with the image itself. What would normally be a scene that you could walk by everyday without a second glance or may even call ugly has been turned into an image that you can't look away from. You look at every  detail and these undesirable locations become beautiful.

It could be interesting to take images from my film and turn them into paintings, drawings or prints like George Shaw. It could be done in his way of photorealism to make the use the exact same image but turn it into something beautiful, or in a style that is more obviously hand made to add an emotion/mood.