Deceiving the Eyes

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:

http://www.swanstudio.net/

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:

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and you can also follow artist Marty Wisher on Twitter

#tromploeil #custommural #muralpainting