Julian BeeverPavement Picasso

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his anamorphic arton 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.

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 nonexistent hole.

Hosing down the street everything is fake, even the hose and water!

Rafting…Watch out!

Canal Street - New Orleans 

Land Use

There is no hole in this pavement.

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

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

Baby Food

Baby Food viewed from the opposite side

'Once I realized you could make things go down, I realized 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

'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, 'If it rains it means I've done a lot of hard work for nothing, but I usually manage to avoid that.'

Visit with Santa

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