Monday, September 29, 2008

Julian Beever (Chris' Pick)



Julian Beever was an artist that I have come across several times over the past year while researching my interests in creating illusions and accurate perspective. Julian is from England and is best known for his chalk art that creates illusions of depth and three-dimentional objects. Beever's chalk drawings are done on pavement and have been the focus of his artwork since the mid-1990's. He also is accredited for his full wall murals, traditional oil paintings, and collages of Princess Diana.


Beever creates his illusions by means of a technique called anamorphosis. This technique creates the three-dimensional image when viewed from a particular location and angle. His ability to create such a strong sense of depth and realistic space fascinates me. His style is also impressive because as real as the space seems, his strokes and color choices reflect that of cartoons and imaginary space. The viewer's eye is tossed back and forth from reality to imagination.

For my project I want to be able to create a religious space in my painting that the viewer feels they can step into as a place of meditation. Like Beever, I want it to feel realistic enough to touch and connect with but stylistic enough to be a place of the imagination. I think this notion is similar to Julie Blackmon's (Jana's pick) quote: "the struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality is intense since these two opposites strive to dominate."
Julian Beever's Homepage has several images of his work.

4 comments:

Casey said...

I have come across this guy several times and not once has he failed to blow my mind with the thought of attempting something like this. His sense of perception amazes me, and I think that you get an even better appreciation of his ability and a sense of the undertaking by looking at 'out of perspective' photographs, some of which (of the girl in the swimming pool and of the globe) can be found at Chris' link. (http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm)

Melissa said...

I find this work so awesome. I had no idea you could do that with chalk. I think this is a great example of taking a material combining it with intellect and bringing it beyond it's own boundaries.

White_Girl_in_Japan said...

I actually had to blow the images up because I thought part of these works were 3d. I love the idea of illusions in art. Or creating an atmosphere or world one can really jump into when you look at the work.

This art definitely blows away the barriers between the world of 2d and 3d. I can't believe how real these works art, but at the same time, they are very cartoony. What an undertaking.

Jessica Wolf said...

My grandma actually sent me a bunch of his work via e-mail last semester.. and ever since I have been totally amazed by his work. Its absolutely incredible how truly 3D his images are! I would really like to see one in person some day.