“Hand Painted Tins” – Playfully exploring the boundary between image and reality, in the ancient style of Trompe L’oeil art.

Trompe l’oeil, (French: “deceive the eye”) in painting, the representation of an object with such verisimilitude as to deceive the viewer concerning the material reality of the object. This idea appealed to the ancient Greeks who were newly emancipated from the conventional stylizations of earlier art. Zeuxis, for example, reportedly painted such realistic grapes that birds tried to eat them.

Tactile Photography – The journey begins with a detailed photograph placed on an aluminum substrate with a high gloss surface finish. Tactile acrylic gel mediums are then hand-painted to embellish the details thus raising the image to a new dimension.

The combination of artistic photography, with the art of trompe l’oeil, is the emotional tactile connection that brings the concept together as one unit of exploration to be enjoyed with the slightest of touch!

Artist’s Bio

Brenda Castonguay is an award-winning photographer with over thirty years of extensive experience in photojournalism and fine art.

Brenda was at the end of a two-year stint in fine art studies at Montreal’s Dawson College when she attended a short immersive class in graphic design and photography at The Saydie Bronfman Centre of The Arts. It was then that Brenda found her calling in photography and enrolled at Montreal’s Dawson Institute of Photography for commercial photography studies.
It was during that time that the infamous Oka Crisis was at its peak that Brenda got to know a group of elite photojournalists from around the world and under their encouragement, Brenda chose to pursue her education in photojournalism. Soon after, Brenda was accepted with advanced standing to Belleville Ontario’s Loyalist College of Applied Arts and Sciences and earned the Southam Publishing Scholarship.

Brenda’s career and love for travel ultimately took her across the country where she finally settled in Calgary, Alberta and decided to become self-employed with options of freelance work in photojournalism. Brenda leveraged a small business loan offered through MCC’s Start-Up Program, now known as Momentum, and set up a portrait studio in the trendy community of Inglewood. For over seventeen years, Brenda’s studio was a staple in the Inglewood community where she catered to a diverse high-end clientele, twice earning Calgary’s Child Magazines acclaimed Parents Choice Award.

Now settled on Vancouver Island, Brenda combines her past experience in art with her passion of photography by printing her images on high gloss metal, (via dye-sublimation transfer) then hand paints the textures and details with acrylic textured gel mediums, resulting in a highly detailed tactile experience of her stunning landscapes and macro florals.
– Art you encouraged to touch!