Julian Beever Pavement Picasso Victoria-M

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his anamorphic art on the pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium.

Beever gives an amazing illusion to his drawings, so that the objects appear to be three dimensional rather than flat as they actually are. Work in progress

Work completed Hard to believe that the little boy is standing flat on the pavement!

Julian admits that some people see his work as graffiti, and don't feel it has a place on public streets. Happily, he says, he mostly receives a positive reaction and people like and enjoy his art.

Did you spot tiny Julian Beever on the Top of the Bottle?

The 3D aspect to his work came much later while he was working in Brussels, 'I decided to get into 3D after seeing the effect of tiles being removed from the street, and later trying to recreate the sense of depth in a drawing.' People avoid the hole.

Everything is fake, even the hose and water!

Rafting Watch out!

Canal Street - New Orleans

Land Use

There is no hole in this pavement.

'Today I'm drawing Felix the Cat gate-crashing the Chinese New Year of the dog. He's popping put of the ground in a Chinese dragon costume.' Chinese Dragon with Felix the Cat

Politicians get sucked into a pit. Who will save them?

Baby Food

Baby Food viewed from the opposite side

'Once I realised you could make things go down, I realised you could make them appear to go up and I began experimenting.' Make Poverty History - side view - 40 ft long

Make Poverty History - front view

Amazing!

Art for the people. 'My art is for anybody, it's for people who wouldn't go into an art gallery. It's art for the people.' 'Art shouldn't be locked away in galleries and libraries and books. Art should be for everybody and not just art buffs, historians and so-called experts.'

Julian works in chalk, so his art, which takes up to 3 days to complete, is there only as long as the elements allow, Visit with Santa 'If it rains it means I've done a lot of hard work for nothing, but I usually manage to avoid that.'

The important thing for me is to get a photo of it at the end. For me, I'm working towards building a photograph as my end result, and if I get that I'm happy.'

'The secret is to set up a camera on a tripod and keep it in one spot and check every mark you make. It's really just playing with perspective to make it appear different to what it really is.' Julian Beever - Self Portrait

E N D © March/2009