ipl-logo

Rob Gonslves Analysis

723 Words3 Pages

Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian magic realism painter using acrylic and oil paints on canvas to create optical illusions within his paintings.
His works are semi-realistic and appear normal on first glance but as a viewer’s eyes wander across the painting and take in the much larger picture at a distance, they will realise that the apparently normal scene is actually a surreal take on the world. For example, one of Rob Gonsalves’ works (and arguably his most famous) depicts a series of ships cruising through the ocean, one behind the other, in front of an immense white bridge with clouds in the background. Upon closer inspection, you will realise that the clouds are actually the sails of the smaller ships receding into the background and that they themselves slowly fade into the shape of the bridge.
This composition creates a mind-blowing effect where a person looking at the left hand side of the painting will at first see a large bridge stretching across an cloudy ocean while a person on the right will see a procession of ships sailing away from a normal bridge, and a person taking in the big picture from the middle will observe both of …show more content…

All the lines are smooth and deliberate, surrounded by diluted colours which all fall into a gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing composition that is directly in the middle of the borders between fantasy and reality. Gonsalves’ style is very modern because of the use of block-like colours and little fine detail and it is also quite unique due to the genre and the way Gonsalves draws his human figures.
In conclusion, I love Rob Gonsalves’ work because of the genius illusionistic techniques he has managed to create and his ability to pull a viewer into a dreamlike story with only a painting of one

Open Document