3D Mural paintings

These paintings made by John Pugh are truly mind-boggling. They may at first seem to be three-dimensional Images at first, or even real-life scenes, but upon closer inspection one would notice that they are as flat as a simple sketch. Through a mastery of color layering and perfect measure calculations, Pugh creates stunning paintings that are easily overwhelming and highly deceiving - he even puts life-size people in his pictures to make them more believable from a distance. 

NOTE: I discovered that if you click on any of the pictures that I put on my blog, a manual slideshow will come up, making the pictures easier to view and a bit larger. If you do use this, please continue to the bottom of the post anyway, because the pictures aren't the only things included.

All of these are, technically speaking, two-dimensional. 

A few of these paintings are in public areas (and on public buildings), so there have been a few incidents regarding how realistic they are. 

For the Mural painted on the side of Taylor Hall:

 

"Soon after the mural was complete a woman employee that worked upstairs across the street from Taylor Hall called the administration and seriously complained and asked when they were going to fix the wall." 

  "It was also reported by the C.S.U.C. public affairs officer Bob Pentzer that after the completion of the Taylor Hall project several accidents were reported occuring at the stop sign adjacent to the mural because motorists were distracted while viewing the broken wall illusion."

The secret garden niche mural:       

                                                               

"Witnesses working at a show of John Pugh's paintings reported three separate occassions where art patrons inadvertently broke wine glasses and spilled wine or beer as a result of trying to set their glass or mug on an illusionary shelf of a painted secret garden niche."

The "Josuha Tree Chronicles" Mural:

 "Librarian Fran Elgin reported that a multitude of first time student viewers of the mural "The Joshua Tree Chronicles" notified her that the painted canvas was un-raveling and falling off the strecher frame." 

So next time you see a niche in a wall or a nice seat you would like to rest on in the next "room", it might be a good idea to stop and consider the possibility that it could just be a plain wall playing tricks on you.

- Found through Design Swan, Images and quoted article tidbits found on John Pugh's Mural website.