Artistic Deceptions!

One of my students recently walked past my desk where my newest watercolor still life painting lay flat. She paused. Then, reaching out with one hesitant finger, she carefully nudged the edge of the sand dollar. It didn’t move. That sand dollar was only watercolor pigment floated onto a flat sheet of paper and allowed to dry! That’s one of the ways we artists try to deceive the viewer!

“The painter attempts to give the object that he has painted, in itself no more than paint, such a realistic appearance that the eye of the beholder is either wholly or partially deceived,” wrote a guy named Boccaccio around 1370. “It’s making something appear to exist when in fact it does not.”

Throughout the history of Western European art, the main goal was to create as lifelike an appearance as possible. That goal persisted until modern times. Around 1800, the French coined a term for it: trompe l’oeil, fool the eye! Trick the observer into believing that the painted objects are actually real! Classic trompe l’oeil paintings are almost always executed in oil with dark backgrounds, but in these three paintings, I instead used watercolor with white backgrounds.

There are basically three main categories of trompe l’oeil style paintings. First are the illusionary or illusory objects and simulations, like realistically painted violins appearing to hang on a real door or a floral still life painting with a protective curtain drawn half way across it that isn't a curtain but mere paint itself. These might include a painting protected by glass which appears to be cracked or broken. However, it's not glass, it's simply paint. Then there’s the illusion of a painting hanging on a wall which is merely a painted scene with a painted frame and a painted shadow, all appearing very dimensional and real. It's only an illusion. My favorites are the quodlibet paintings, which as an art term (not the musical or philosophical definitions) means something ordinary, like bulletin boards, shelves, scissors, shells, etc. Here's a secret tip: come and watch the Auction Artists InSide the Back Mountain at this year's 79th annual Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction where they will paint the auction stage and audience as part of a quodlibet!

Second are the illusionary or illusory architecture paintings. These are related to our modern day murals and wallpapers: fake gateways to beautiful gardens and architectural elements such as alcoves, balustrades, balconies, and columns painted onto smooth, bare walls. Perspective was an incredible part of these amazing, classic, centuries-old masterpieces since no computers or AI existed to help plan rays, vanishing points, or station points.

Last comes the portrayal of people and animals in the most lifelike way possible. For centuries, artists have painted stuffed animals—and I don't mean cute plush ones, I mean dead ones. They also painted realistic depictions of live animals in action. Today there are trompe l’oeil performances called “Living Galleries” where the audience is convinced they are viewing a famous painting on a huge screen, only to watch the painting slowly change as its living actors move. Several times in several different museums I have been personally startled by the lifelike sculptures created by Duane Hanson. I once rounded a corner in a Boston museum and, surprised by two of his sculptures, spoke to them! Look him up! His realistic figural three-dimensional sculptures of cast resins truly fool the eye!! 

Realistic painting is nothing more than an optical illusion of space and depth on a flat surface. The great Italian Renaissance artist Bienvenuto Cellini thought all painting was a lie and the better the painter, the bigger the liar! That was back when ALL art was representational. Then came Courbet, Manet, impressions, expressions, abstractions, all the -isms, and here we are today with splashed paint, cubed forms, shredded artwork and taped bananas, all selling for millions!

When I created these three quodlibet-style watercolor paintings, I first laid out the actual three-dimensional objects on hot-pressed (smooth surface) watercolor paper to plan the composition. Moving each object out of the way one at a time, I used an HB pencil to delineate the shape a bit larger than actual size, indicating all edges and details. The hardest object to draw was the pine cone with all its petals! (Yes, pine cones are really flowers!) Then I painted with watercolor—slowly, carefully, and employing a lot of dry brush technique for the textures.

If you created a quodlibet still life, what objects would you include? Try it sometime, if only in graphite or colored pencil! It's not only fun, it's amazing what details you begin to see! 

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This article originally appeared in the June 2025 publication of InSide the Back Mountain.