In 2014, the painter George Shaw (b. 1966) began a two-year post as Associate Artist in the National Gallery, London. This beautifully designed book documents his experiences there, as well as the work he produced in response to the Gallery’s collections.

Shaw is known for his minutely detailed and luminously atmospheric depictions of the urban landscape and woodlands of central England. Painting scenes from his native region, Shaw meditates on the central themes of relationships, ancestry and love. His preferred medium, Humbrol enamel paint, is a deliberate means of distancing himself from the traditions of oil painting. Yet as a teenager growing up in Coventry, Shaw developed a deep relationship with the Gallery, travelling regularly to London to draw from those artists he found inspiring. This stylish volume reproduces his first series of paintings on canvas, together with working drawings and an insightful, witty essay authored by the artist himself.