Deceiving the Eyes
You may have heard
the French term Tromp L’oeil, but wondered what it meant. It literally means to
“deceive the eye”. It is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create
the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. The
technique has been around a very long time. Here’s a fun story concerning an
art contest circa 460sBC:
An oft-told ancient
Greek story concerns a contest between two renowned painters. Zeuxis (born
around 464 BC) produced a still life painting so convincing that birds flew
down to peck at the painted grapes. A rival, Parrhasius, asked Zeuxis to judge
one of his paintings that was behind a pair of tattered curtains in his study.
Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to pull back the curtains, but when Zeuxis tried, he
could not, as the curtains were included in Parrhasius's painting—making
Parrhasius the winner.
Using this ancient
technique, a shallow Master Bedroom niche now has new “depth:
Front view - overhead light off
Front view- overhead light on
right sideview
Left sideview
Looking up from floor into the niche:shows just how shallow the niche actually is in "real life"
Have a niche or wall space you need transformed? Contact me at Swan Studios Inc:
Here are some other niches I've painted to inspire you:
Poolside niche:
Don't have a niche? No worries, the "illusion" of a niche or window can be painted for you:
Be sure to follow Swan Studios Inc on your favorite social media:
and you can also follow artist Marty Wisher on Twitter
#tromploeil #custommural #muralpainting
