THE SURPRISING ART..

The Surprising Art. 3D Pictures on Asphalt.

The most exciting event for me was `The Moscow Festival of 3D Pictures on Asphalt`. It took place in Babushinsky Park in May, 2012. The art of drawing 3D pictures on asphalt impressed me very much.

Do you think this art is new? It turns out the origins of modern street painting began in Britain.

The British term for Pavement artist is "screever". The term screever is most commonly cited as Shakespearean slang dating from around 1500.

The works of screevers were often accompanied by poems and proverbs, lessons on morality and political commentary on the day’s events. They appealed to both the working man and woman, who (on the whole) could not read or write, but understood the visual images; and the educated middle-classes who appreciated the moral lessons and comments. It was important for a screever to catch the eye of the ‘well to do’ and in turn attract the pennies.

Street painters, (also called chalk artists) or called Madonnari in Italy because they recreated images of the Madonna. In Germany Strassenmaler (street: straßen, painter: maler).

The Italian Madonnari were itinerant artists, many of whom had been brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals. When the work was done, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus would often recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement. Aware of festival and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities to make a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the artist's work. For centuries Madonnari were folk artists, reproducing simple images with crude materials such as tiles, coal and chalk.

The first recorded street-painting competition & 'festival' was held in London in 1906.

In the 1980s, Kurt Wenner practiced '3D pavement art,' or one-point perspective art, otherwise known as anamorphic art, a 500 year old technique, which appeared as proper perspective only when viewed from a specific angle.

In 2010, the First International Street Painting Festival in the United States .Over 250 street painters attended the Halloween-themed festival that featured street painters from around the world.

At Sarasota's chalkfestival 2011 Dutch artist Leon Keer and the team of Planet Streetpainting created the 3d street painting of the Lego Terracotta Army. The chalk painting was inspired by Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army 

Let me introduce you some more masters of street painting who changes streets into a museum of chalk art.

Rod Tryon has been adorning the streets of the world with his chalk drawings for more than 20 years, and was first inspired to try anamorphic designs in 1996. Of his paintings, Rod says “Entertaining the audience by creating an image that looks like it is coming up out of the street, or the impression of a hole opening up in the asphalt in front of you, is a special treat for the artist. Seeing crowds react to his 3-D pastel images, bring great joy to both the artist and onlookers.”

Edgar Mueller. This guy is simply amazing. His art is breath-taking and mind-blowing. He is a master of street painting. He uses the street as a canvas. If one looks from the right spot, its three-dimensional painting becomes the perfect illusion. He paints over large areas of urban public life and gives them a new appearance, thereby challenging the perceptions of passers-by.
His technique stretches hundreds of square meters over the pavement, allowing people to interact and literally get inside the image. Just amazing!

The art of 3D pictures on asphalt in Russia appeared only in the beginning of the 21 century. The first Russian madonnary is Philip Kozlov from Volgograd. He began his career in 2008. And now he has more than 20 creative and advertising pictures.

Today 3D pictures on asphalt are used for advertising campaign by Nike, Coca-Cola, Citroen, Sony, Nokia and many others.

Do you want to try this art?