Optical Illusion of The Day: Water Dancers Optical Illusion

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:27 PM PDT

Water Dancers is another magnificent illusory painting by Rob Gonsalves, a Canadian painter of magic realism with a unique perspective and style. We have seen multiple examples of paintings in which detailed images are intricately woven together to create larger images – the optical illusions fading back and stepping forward as you study the pieces, notice the details, and finally recognize the large scale intention.

But Rob’s paintings include one additional aspect - sometimes it’s not that easy to dissect and pinpoint where one motive ends and its transformation into another begins (see Camels in The Night, Cathedral of Commerce and Ships and Arches for better understanding).

Although Gonsalves’ work is often categorized as surrealistic, it differs because the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. I think it goes without saying that all of these paintings take their author notable amount of time before he finishes them (planning each piece in order to make the transitions flawless).