Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Bic money: Casas can use up four 14p ball­points on one pic­ture, but his prizewin­ning works already fetch up to £3,750 each

They may look like pin-sharp pho­tographs — but these amaz­ing pic­tures are actu­ally draw­ings cre­ated with the hum­ble ball­point pen. The stun­ning pic­tures, mea­sur­ing up to 10ft high, were drawn by a ris­ing star of the art world, Juan Fran­cisco Casas. Casas, 31, can use up to four 14p ball­point pens for a can­vas and his works are already a sell-out at exhi­bi­tions. For­merly a tra­di­tional painter, Juan began the draw­ings three years ago based on pho­tographs of nights out with his friends.

Pen­man Juan Fran­cisco Casas with his work. He said, ‘It started off as a joke, to try and make some­thing so real­is­tic that peo­ple would think is a photo. He has exhib­ited in Chicago and in his native Spain, and is prepar­ing an exhi­bi­tion in Rome where he now lives. At an exhi­bi­tion in Madrid last week he sold 60 works for between 1,000 and 5,000 euros apiece (£750 to £3,750). He said: “It was a real shock that it was so suc­cess­ful. I would love to come to Eng­land, but at the moment I haven’t got a lot of work, as I’ve sold everything.”

via dailymail.co.uk and The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Update (2010÷04÷21): Here is a video of James Mylne, cre­at­ing a sim­i­lar piece.