Greg Brown

Greg Brown is a Palo Alto-based artist who specializes in whimsical murals- I had grown up seeing his work downtown without putting together that there was a reason these aliens and burglars seemed sort of similar.

Brown specializes in a technique called trompe l’oeil (“fool the eye”) which basically equals super-realistic shading and detail- murals so realistic that according to legend someone called the police department on the burglars Brown painted above a University Avenue storefront.

A few years ago I saw a exhibit he did called “Unlikely saints,” in which he painted some everyday characters as Orthodox saints, complete with gold leaf background halos- a barista, a landscaper. It was pretty cool.

Leave a Reply