Inspirational Art4u - Original Fine Art Paintings + Cartoons by the artist Edward
McNaught-Davis
Copyright ©Edward McNaught-Davis 2002 to 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Trompe de L’Oiel Paintings
Trompe de L’oiel paintings are "Trick of The Eye” pictures or illusion paintings.
The artist needs to be highly skilled to produce illusionary paintings which will
trick your eyes into believing what the artist wants you to believe or to question,
if only for a brief moment. The trompe de l’oiel paintings below, “Returning from
the 4th Dimension”, “Escaping Barn Owl” and the comparison painting entitled “Barn
Owl” show their subject matter attempting to leave their picture frames. That’s the
illusion! The frames are only painted onto the canvas. I’m still learning how to
do effective illusionary paintings and I do experiments from time-to-time. You could
say that one of my medieval castle paintings has an illusionary feel to it as well;
this being Carew Castle Turret Steps.
“Returning from the 4th
Dimension”
Acrylic on Canvas
203 mm x 254 mm
(8 x 10 inches)
Price: Not For Sale
Copyright ©Edward McNaught-Davis 2007. All Rights Reserved.
“Escaping Barn Owl”
Acrylic on Canvas
254 mm x 203 mm
(10 x 8 inches)
Price: GBP 105.00
Copyright ©Edward McNaught-Davis 2008. All Rights Reserved.
“Barn Owl”
Acrylic on Block Canvas
127 mm x 127 mm
(5 x 5 inches)
Price: GBP 80.00
About the Painting: “Returning from the 4th Dimension”
This painting is a variation on the original masterpiece by Pere Borrell del Caso.
His Trompe de L’oiel painting is called, “Escaping Criticism” and it was painted
in 1874 in oil on canvas. The original masterpiece hangs within Banco de España,
Madrid. My version is a smaller one and was painted in 2005 in acrylic on canvas.
I changed the composition slightly as well as significant facial characteristics.
I decided not to paint in his other leg in order to give the painting more mystique.
I really painted it just for me and because I liked Pere Borrell’s original masterpiece.
The “Escaping Barn Owl” below follows the same illusionary theme.
About the Painting: “Escaping Barn Owl”
The illusion for this painting is quite simply a fleeing barn owl seemingly flying
out of his framed picture. There is no wooden picture frame; instead it is painted
onto the canvas to aid the illusion. As you can see the owl looks as though he/she
has just cleared the picture frame except for his/her right leg. You can just see
his/her left foot clutching this side of the frame unlike the smaller version of
the Barn Owl below.
About the Painting: “Barn Owl”
The “Barn Owl” image on the right will be soon replaced with a better one. The painting
is not lop sided as it currently shows itself to be. It is a smaller version too
of the similar Escaping Barn Owl painting above. This Barn Owl picture was painted
originally for a miniature painting exhibition in Wales.