Astounding Paper Art: Life-Like Birds, Ghostly Castles, More

Here’s a look at three artists whose realism is astounding and whose methods to achieve such realism using the medium of paper are innovative.
Astounding Paper Art: Life-Like Birds, Ghostly Castles, More
A bird made out of paper and wire. (Courtesy of Diana Beltran Herrera)
12/10/2013
Updated:
4/11/2014

Paper Birds

Diana Beltran Herrera makes her realistic paper birds starting with layers of paper to create the base structure. She then glues on the colorful paper feathers, which are curled and splayed. Finally, she uses metal wires to form the legs.

She uses photographs and her memory to recreate the colorful forms.

Herrera’s work has appeared in the Lambert Contemporary gallery and in the Art and Soul of Paper, among other exhibitions. Her new collections of eight sculptures is currently on display at The Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Florida through Dec. 8, 2013. 

 

 

Embossed Structures With Haunting Beauty

German artist Simon Schubert uses innovative techniques to fold a single piece of paper into an image of an architectural work. He does not use any pens, pencils, or other materials to shade or add color. He uses the piece of paper to create layers and depth. The effect is haunting; his work seems to depict ghostly structures, visible, but not quite there. 

His body of work includes “Stadtschloss,” the depiction of a city palace in Berlin.  Stadtschloss opened in 1451 and housed Prussian kings and German emperors. It still serves as a parliamentary house, and has been restored following extensive damage during WWII.

Most of his inspiration comes from literature, philosophy, film, and fine art, as the majority of the structures he depicts do not exist. 

 

Art That Jumps Off the Page

Peter Callesen has been mostly working with A4-type white paper, a type of paper he describes on his website as “probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today.”

“This is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works.”

 

SEE MORE AMAZING PAPER ART:

Astounding Paper Art: Origami Collection
Calvin Nicholls Phenomenal Paper Sculptures
Astounding Paper Art: Rolled, Folded, and Layered

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