—– Forwarded Message —- Subject:   Re: Extreme Murals and Painted Buildings (Absolutely Fabulous)     Bleak Walls Transformed by Creativity Urban landscape can be drab and featureless – but not when artists are spicing it up with spectacular wall paintings, as shown in this article. Some murals can be considered realistic illusions, some have educational and historical meaning, some can be labeled as "kitsch", but all of them are welcome splashes of color and creativity in the city's day-to-day life. (Restoration of the Fine Arts Museum of Brussels,  We'll start with a cheerful building in Tarragona, Spain: A beautiful one found in Campestang, France (left) – and an intriguing painting on the old door in Rome: Ornate balconies in Barcelona (left): Apartment buildings in Holland (if not for paint, they would definitely look depressing and bleak): Portrait murals are especially effective when painted on dilapidated old walls, speaking about passage of time, life and real values: Here is a series of buildings in Lyon, France: And a more psychedelic variety from Russia: Something strange arrived in Berlin (left image); and a magenta fish found in Japan: The sailing ship on the right was spotted in Brussels: A couple more from Paris, sent in by Stan Barets: I took this photo in Cannes, France: The following wall paintings are in Jerusalem, and reflect the city's multifaceted past: Germany is full of the wonderful murals, especially in Bavaria, where it became a traditional folk art: Very sophisticated mural in Quebec, Canada: One in Belfast, Ireland: Back side of the Gooderham Flat Iron Building in Toronto: Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, Ohio: Here is how he makes an endless wall of the shopping mall actually… attractive: Swimming pool mural: Chamber of Commerce, Bucyrus, Ohio: Here is another wonderful example of wall 3D paintings, but I'd like to know who the artist is: Various 3D Wall Paintings, all spectacular: What you've just seen is not in any way three-dimensional, it's all a trick, an illusion… Here are some places (walls) on which this wonder unfolds: a sidewalk in Sarasota County Health Center, Florida… all-too-realistic wave in a sidewalk in Honolulu, Hawaii…the 'earthquake' wall on Main Street of Los Gatos, California, was created following a real earthquake there in 1989… "Tunnel Vision" at AgFirst Building in Columbia, South Carolina: Here is another transformation trick by mural painter Dominique Antony - boring grey facade of the Paris' Saint-Georges Theatre, shown before andafter: Some of the "trompe-l'oeil" in Belgrade, Serbia: Beautiful wall painting in Rome, Italy: Montpellier, France (on the left)… and a perspective illusion in Madrid, Spain (bottom right): Very nice painting on a wall of a bakery in Dijon, France: Extreme animated crowd by Kenny Scharf, in NYC: These people are watching you…. somewhere in Russia (they would, wouldn't they?): (mural in Warsaw, Poland ) Even creepier is this mural (location unknown): Using Colour… to the Max! Gaudy but impressive colors of the Ramenskoe apartment district in Moscow: Is this the utmost in urban psychedelics? The whole apartment complex painted in unbelievably bright colors… Looks interesting enough, but how would it feel to live in the middle of a paint explosion or a rainbow gone nuts? Colourful painted apartment buildings of Tirana, the capital of Albania (post-communist efforts to brighten up depressing old urban blocks): Gorgeous, almost glowing Caminito district in Buenos Aires, Argentina: The richest colours combine into a feast for the eyes: Now… how about some fun in the ghetto? This was exactly the mission of two Dutch painters Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn - to go to the poorest section of Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums) and paint it in the cheerful way, with active participation of people who live there: Perhaps the most famous mural of all: "Apple Corp." (that is the Beatles, not Steve Jobs) wall on Carnaby Street in London: Banksy's wonderful mural / graffiti gracing a wall of an "UP" building slated to float into the clouds: And while you're painting the wall, you might as well have some lunch and a card game break ("Compagnie les Passagers" street theater):