Back of the Canvas: Rehoboth

Back of the Canvas: Rehoboth
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Trompe L'oeil means "fool the eye".  It's a genre of painting where the artist tries to make people believe that what the viewer is seeing is the real thing.  My painting "Back of the Canvas: Rehoboth" is supposed to look like the back of a stretched canvas with postcards and a ribbon stuck in the back. I had to paint the stretcher strips to look like wood simulating the grain of the wood.  I painted the back of the canvas to look like woven cloth.  The ribbon casts a shadow on the wood. Even on the sides of the real canvas, I painted little nail heads.  It's a very tedious type of painting, and I don't do many of them.  But when I do, I always get into them and really enjoy them.  They are labor intensive and take a long time.

My painting has found a new home.  I put it on Etsy, an on line store for hand made items, and a woman in Lancaster, PA purchased it.  I will ship it out tomorrow.  Certain paintings make me a little sad when I part with them, and this is one of those paintings.  I hope the new owner enjoys it as much as I enjoyed painting it.