Most of the trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) paintings were done thirty-five years ago, from 1974-1976. The rules of trompe l'oeil painting were to paint things that were actual size, unmoving and with a very shallow depth.  Historically the technique has been used since the ancient Greeks, became popular in the 19th century (John Haberle, William Harnett, John Peto) and is found today in set designs, outdoor murals (Richard Haas) and the 2-D and 3-D works of many contemporary artists.

My first few were done as demonstrations for an art class at Milton Academy where I was teaching. The students loved the project and my experimentation went from painting of scraps taped on drawing boards, to the exploding torn holes and other illusions.  I also played with painting on top of photographs because I liked the variety of images and the competing types of illusions.

Links to other pages of Tim Hamill's artwork are below.  More will be added.