Photos by Filip Mrvelj and Victoria Scott

If you’ve been to Villaggio mall lately, you’ve probably seen at least one of Croatian 3D artist Filip Mrvelj‘s paintings, which were installed as part of the mall’s Spring Festival.

The two works – one positioned near Paul cafe at the top of the canal, the other in the mall’s “luxury” wing – depict gondolas floating on water, and pillars supporting the floor, respectively.  

Beginning life as a classical painter, Mrvelj told Doha News that he’s had no formal training in 3D art, which he more properly calls “anamorphic painting.”

He told us that he first discovered the technique while researching online “many years ago,” but he only actually began producing anamorphic art four years ago.

“I just started to paint with my intuition, because I can instinctively feel how something will look at the end. This is very useful for me, because I can easily adapt to new circumstances and the client’s wishes…after all, this is street art,” he said.

Over the last four years, he’s painted with oil, acrylics, pastels and ink on many different surfaces – including snow. He’s not afraid to take on large projects, either:

“My biggest project was a 1300 square meter anamorphic picture, which I did in June 2011 in my home town of Slavonski Brod, in Croatia” he told us. “It was called ‘Missing Coast.’ It was painted with permanent colors on part of the river bank, so that when the river was high, it looked like water was falling down into a big hole in the ground. It took me 25 days to complete.”

Have you seen his Villaggio paintings? Thoughts?