Sidewalk Artists

This time I think it would be interesting to mention the most important sidewalk or chalk artists recently.

One of the most prominent is the English chalk artist Julian Beever, he has been doing this kind of drawings and paintings since the mid-90s mainly recognized in England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. He uses a technique called “anamorphosis” to give his paintings a three dimensional illusion when they are viewed from the right angle, even that everything  is plane on the pavement, it is amazing! Nowadays Beever’s talent is contracted to work for big companies like Sony and so others and do advertising draws.

Another unbelievable chalk artist is Kurt Wenner, he is also known for his spectacular three dimensional paintings mainly in Europe, but we should know he was a scientific working for the NASA before becoming a sidewalk artist; eventually working for NASA he decided to left and go to Rome to pursue his love for the art. Wenner is well-known for his creativity and original work, which does not copy or imitate the masters’. In addition to chalk art, Wenner also executes architecture. Not leaving his draws behind, we also have to say that his work is awesome.

  

By Julian Beever

Bibliography

Beever, Julian. timotca. 2010. August 2011 <http://www.timotca.org/demo4/biography.html>.

Sunseven. hubpages. 2011. August 2011 <http://sunseven.hubpages.com/hub/Incredible_Beever>.

Wenner, Kurt. Master Artist. 2009. August 2011 <http://www.kurtwenner.com/artist.htm>.

Sidewalk Art

I didn’t know what this theme was about when I first read it, but it seemed quite interesting just because the fact of thinking in art embodied right on the streets. Sidewalk art, also known as street painting is the act of creating pictures on public places such as sidewalks, streets and also town squares. This kind of art is new to most of the countries, but it has been an old tradition in Europe, and it was originated in Italy during the 16^th century

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It’s important to mention how these sidewalk artists started in the Italy; they were called “Madonnari” because of their practice painting images of Madonna. They were vagabond but very creative artists who lived day by day with the coins they earned with their street art. Often they traveled around near towns to join festivities and paint mostly religious pictures in public places using chalk, brick, charcoal or any material they could find.

These artists were taken seriously until the first International Street Painting Competition was created in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy in 1972. The festival resulted successful and got national recognition as an art form.

Nowadays this kind of art is very tourist mostly in Italy, where it began to spring up, but also in the whole Europe and recently in America.

Bibliography

La Femme Pastel. 2009. August 2011 <http://www.lafemmepastel.com/about/history-of-street-painting>.

Via Colori. 2008. August 2011 <http://www.viacolori.com/history.asp>.