Pavement Drawings

I have been following Julian Beever’s 3-D sidewalk drawings for a while now. He is continuously adding new installations that amaze me. Beever uses chalk to create drawings that have extreme depth. Sometimes it is difficult to tell where the drawing ends and reality begins. Beever work is distorted so that it looks 3-d when viewed from a certain angle. Beever is from the U.K. but has worked all around the world doing, pavement drawings, mural, and paintings.

I really like Beever’s chalk drawing chalk drawing of the girl feeding the fish. I love the composition of the pond with the lily pads. The artist has an incredible way of depicting water in this piece and also in much of his other work as well. He also shows no sign of a transition between the drawing and the actual tile of the ground. I think it would be interesting to view Beever’s work from different angles to see the actual distortion of the image.

The setting of this work is very sweet and whimsical. It looks as if the child is sitting within a painting. The addition of the little girl actually sitting on this drawing really adds to the 3-demensional quality of this work. This really demonstrates the importance of displaying work so that the viewer can engage in it. I don’t think this work would have been as successful without the addition of the child.

It’s amazing that Beever’s work is done in such a temporary way. By using chalk, these pavement drawings are washed away in no time. I think the works’ short-lived presence adds interest. The use of the chalk adds softness to the illustration. As an artist, it would be difficult to spend so much time on something so temporary.