Pavement Picasso Julian Beever
I have recently received an email from Wei Ling, our Kuantan study group member, that has many beautiful pictures of 3D chalk art and I would like to share with all of you.
I thought you would enjoy to see such creativity. I do very much. Fantastic talent.
Tsem Rinpoche
The artist
Julian Beever has the nickname the ‘Pavement Picasso’. Julian is often called the ‘Pavement Picasso’ for his enormous 3D chalk sketchings, which he has taken across the world, from the USA, France and Spain to Australia.
The 49-year-old artist, who is based in Belgium but was originally from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, has spent over 20 years working on his pavement art, which he first became interested in while working with a Punch and Judy show in York in the 1980s.
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.
“Once I realised you could make things go down, I realised you could make them appear to go up and I began experimenting.”
Julian works in chalk, so his art, which takes up to 3 days to complete, is there only as long as the elements allow, “If it rains it means I’ve done a lot of hard work for nothing, but I usually manage to avoid that.
Art for the people
Julian admits that some people do 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.
“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 boffins, historians and so-called experts.”
I have shared a Veoh video on how Julian Beever worked on one of his masterpieces:
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/v20495749KaSsTpf9.mp4
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I concur with what Pastor Jean Ai has mentioned. This 3D paintings is pretty much like sand mandala. All the more so, sand mandala has depper meaning in it.
A British pavement chalk talented artist, Julian Beever creates realistic three-dimensional illusions. He is known all over the world for his pavement drawings, more especially his 3D illusions. He drew in such a special distortion to create an impression which deceive public’s eyes. He has been creating chalk drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. Amazing he had drew hundreds of pieces of ‘pavement art’ throughout Europe. So creative indeed , I do enjoy looking at those drawings.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Julian Beever is an English chalk artist, who is one of the most famous 3D street artists. He is also known as the “Pavement Picasso” for his enormous 3D pavement sketchings that bring his art well and truly to the streets. He mostly receives a positive reaction and people enjoy seeing his art. Amazingly he has produced hundreds of pieces of ‘pavement art’ at venues all over Europe. Looking at those pictures in this post tell us a thousand words. It is indeed beautiful and realistic.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
This is probably the best I’ve ever seen, marvellus creation, very realist with brilliant idea. I like the idea of Julian Beever, working in open air with public attraction. This job definitely takes a lot of patience and hats off to this extraordinary creativity.
Thank you for the wonderful sharing of a talented artist and his amazing art work.
This is a really amazing and creative street art i have evern seen. Thank you very much Rinpoche and blog team for sharing these wonderful pictures on street art.???
This type of art is truly creative and unique. Depending on the distance from the art and the angle one looks at it, the view will be completely different. Isn’t this similar to real life? One can only see and appreciate the beauty of an object from a very specific and narrow position. Once the person step away from the position/space, the view changes, therefore the heart too.
This is kind of like the Western version of a mandala because like a mandala, it’s a matter of perspective and also impermanent – the wind and rain will wash it out hehehe but of course the symbology of a mandala, which is the celestial abode of a deity, is definitely much, much deeper. This is just one version of a mandala depiction: http://www.vajrasecrets.com/trakze-mandala-thangka
I do appreciate this man’s creativity and his paintings are very interesting to see, but it’s amazing how much effort people put into producing something that has no purpose or value other than as an artistic outlet or as entertainment. You can’t even sell it, since it can’t be removed from the pavement. Then again, another way of looking at it is that his art can never be owned by anyone so he’s not beholden to make something of commercial value and can freely express himself.
But boy, the people who complain about it as graffiti are real Debbie Downers! The stuff is drawn from chalk and will wash out with the rain, what’s there to complain about! 😛
In general I’m not a fan of art (as in paintings) but I do appreciate creativity especially the type of art that challenge optical perception. Sight is one of human primary sensory faculty. We often hear phrases that imply we only believe if we see with our own eyes. What art like these 3D chalk sketching is indirectly showing us is how sight can also be deceptive.
While the visual images are processed by our physical eyes, the meaning behind the images and the perceptions of what the eyes saw are still up to the mind. As “advanced” as the human mind is compared to other physical life forms on Earth, it is still a big mystery to us and its weaknesses are also glaringly obvious. The mind is easily tricked, influenced and manipulated as proven by these 3D art sketching.
As one of my favorite tagline goes “What we see may not be real, what is real we may not see” – Phng Li Kim, The Paranormal Zone.
Beautiful art work, such good imagination by the artist to be able to make such great 3D pieces of ART! It is so amazing what this person can do and I like that the artist treats it as ART for the people. ART works should be shared with everyone, it should not be restricted to the confines of the ELITE.
I use to hate Art during my school days. This is one subject which I always get a red mark for.For the first time I seem to admire Art and that is through Picasso talent of making the Art look so real that under 3 dimension you can’t tell which one is real. The object or the 3 dimension art. Picasso draws his masterpieces with chalk which can be destroyed when it rains. What a waste. I wonder whether he can use paint instead so that he can save the art and preserve them. I really like every picture of the masterpieces which Rinpoche has put on his blog. I totally agree with Rinpoche its fantastic talent for a person who hates Art to say that.
Id have to draw a subway opening on the floor and see if people dodge round it! These are amazing!! Breath taking!!
Wow!! Awesome!! Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche la.
Beautifully drawn, Mr Julian Beever, thank you! Thank you Wei Ling in forwarding this to Rinpoche. And of course, thank you, Rinpoche, for blogging this.
Like others, I am no artist, but I enjoy looking at these 3D drawings. Really creative and beautiful pieces of art.
If Mr Beever were to draw murals, and with more permanent colors, maybe on walls of buildings with approval from the landlord, it might benefit more people on a longer period. Just a thought.
This is a fantastic work of art. The illusion pictures look very real.
This is really marvelous! Thanks Rinpoche for sharing email from Wei Ling from Kuantan study group.
The pictures look sooo real. I know it’s an illusion, but the mind doesn’t want to see it otherwise.
It draws parallel to the way I live my life, perceiving, protecting that which seems so real to me. Even when i know it’s temporary and fleeting.
This is wonderful – Julian is so talented… and he draws purely for the love of it because like all pavement art, it’s erased at the next rainfall. Like all pavement artists, he shows true non-attachment to his art! I used to love to see the pavement artists in UK and Italy. But the 3D artists like Julian are really spectacular.
Thank you for sharing this, Rinpoche.
Gosh this is just amazing. With every single picture I thought, “HOW does that work? HOW?” I still don’t get some of how he has done this. It’s just incredible.
it’s amazing too, how much dedication someone will put into his passion and work… even if it could literally get rained out the that very afternoon! It’s like creating a mandala – all this time and effort put into such a precise work just to make passersby happy (I like his quote about art for people), and knowing that it will probably get washed off eventually by the weather, traffic etc. Admirable, indeed!
this is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I would think it would be great to see something like that on the streets of Columbus.
These are AMAZING! Thank you for sharing this beautiful artwork with us.
Pat
I’ve actually seen this on a street in Singapore, or was it London. I remember it being a laptop, and it was really odd coz one side (the side that “pops” out) was reaaally long.
It’s not how it appears to be when you see it in the photographs – you’d have to be at a certain angle to be able to see that illusion.
Like that photo of a blond lady frolicking in the pool (with the artist pretending to dip his toe in), the foot in real life (when its drawn) is really, really long.
His skill really is amazing. It really is like architecture and art in one. The artist has to think about the relative size of things e.g. how long to draw it = how high it “pops out”. It’s not that easy. Very good imagination.
Would be kindda cool if he did one of Buddha Shakyamuni in a sitting position…but drawn so that it looks like he’s really sitting up in front of you!
Wow. I used to watch “screevers” (I think that’s the term for pavement arists) for hours in Glasgow when I was younger. As someone who can’t draw at all, I’m always very impressed by anyone who can produce such amazing works of creativity. Julian is an awesome artist; his works show just how dedicated and committed to his practice he is and he’s certainly proof that dedication in practice can produce outstanding results!
Thank you for sharing these images, Rinpoche. They’re stunning!
Kindest regards,
Sandy