Rob Gonsalves in high definition. The intricacies of reality in the paintings of Rob Gonsalves. Rob Gonsalves Brief Biography

Robert "Rob" Gonsalves(English) Robert "Rob" Gonsalves; genus. , Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian artist working in the style of magical realism-surrealism. Honorary resident of Canada, awarded many awards.

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“Women,” Pierre said in a quiet, barely audible voice. The Mason did not move or speak for a long time after this answer. Finally he moved towards Pierre, took the handkerchief lying on the table and again blindfolded him.
Last time I tell you: turn all your attention to yourself, put chains on your feelings and look for bliss not in passions, but in your heart. The source of bliss is not outside, but within us...
Pierre already felt within himself this refreshing source of bliss, now filling his soul with joy and tenderness.

Soon after this, it was no longer the former rhetorician who came for Pierre into the dark temple, but the guarantor Villarsky, whom he recognized by his voice. To new questions about the firmness of his intentions, Pierre answered: “Yes, yes, I agree,” and with a radiant childish smile, with an open, fat chest, unevenly and timidly walking with one barefoot and one shod foot, he went forward with Villarsky placed at his side. bare chest with a sword. From the room he was led along corridors, turning back and forth, and finally led to the doors of the box. Villarsky coughed, he was answered with Masonic knocks of hammers, the door opened in front of them. Someone's bass voice (Pierre's eyes were still blindfolded) asked him questions about who he was, where, when he was born? etc. Then they took him somewhere again, without untying his eyes, and while he walked they told him allegories about the labors of his journey, about sacred friendship, about the eternal Builder of the world, about the courage with which he must endure labor and danger . During this journey, Pierre noticed that he was called either a seeker, or a sufferer, or a demander, and at the same time they knocked him with hammers and swords in different ways. While he was being led to some subject, he noticed that there was confusion and confusion between his leaders. He heard how the surrounding people argued among themselves in whispers and how one insisted that he be led along some kind of carpet. After that they took him right hand, they laid it on something, and with their left they ordered him to put a compass to his left chest, and forced him, repeating the words that the other was reading, to read the oath of allegiance to the laws of the order. Then they put out the candles, lit alcohol, as Pierre heard by the smell, and said that he would see a small light. The bandage was removed from him, and Pierre, as if in a dream, saw, in the faint light of the alcohol fire, several people who, wearing the same aprons as the rhetorician, stood opposite him and held swords pointed at his chest. Between them stood a man in a white, bloody shirt. Seeing this, Pierre moved his chest forward towards the swords, wanting them to stick into him. But the swords pulled away from him and the bandage was immediately put on him again. “Now you have seen a small light,” someone’s voice told him. Then they lit the candles again, said that he needed to see the full light, and again they took off the blindfold and more than ten voices suddenly said: sic transit gloria mundi. [this is how worldly glory passes.]
Pierre gradually began to come to his senses and look around the room where he was and the people in it. Around a long table covered in black sat about twelve people, all in the same clothes as those he had seen before. Pierre knew some of them from St. Petersburg society. An unfamiliar young man sat in the chair, wearing a special cross around his neck. On the right hand sat the Italian abbot, whom Pierre had seen two years ago at Anna Pavlovna's. There was also one very important dignitary and a Swiss tutor who had previously lived with the Kuragins. Everyone was solemnly silent, listening to the words of the chairman, who was holding a hammer in his hand. There was a burning star embedded in the wall; on one side of the table there was a small carpet with various images, on the other there was something like an altar with a Gospel and a skull. Around the table there were 7 large, church-like candlesticks. Two of the brothers brought Pierre to the altar, put his legs in a rectangular position and ordered him to lie down, saying that he was throwing himself towards the gates of the temple.

He is called the master of illusion and is revered as one of the best painters of our time. Works Robert "Rob" Gonsalves reveal to the viewer the beauty of magical realism.

Although Robert's works are quite popular, little is known about their author. This Canadian artist became interested in painting as a teenager and at the age of twelve independently mastered the laws of perspective. The turning point in his creative activity was a street art exhibition in Toronto in 1990, after which he devoted himself entirely to art.

The artist’s works invariably attract the attention of the public, and due to the unusual nature of his works, they are sometimes classified as surrealism. But unlike classic examples of surrealist painting, Robert’s paintings are clearly planned in advance and are the result of conscious creativity, so they are more likely to belong to magical realism. The name of this direction fully conveys the specificity of the artist’s creations: he adds magic to the scenes Everyday life and combines different objects in one picture.

The unreality of what is depicted is conveyed by the painter with the help of an excellent knowledge of perspective. This is what makes it possible to perform wonderful metamorphoses with objects, but requires thorough preparation, which is why paintings are painted rather slowly: Robert Gonsalves creates an average of four works per year.

Usually on his canvases you can see at least two different compositions, smoothly flowing into each other. For example, in the work “Toward the Horizon” the arched spans of the highway gradually turn into sailing ships, and the road merges with the border of sea and sky.



Therefore, if it were possible to divide the picture in the middle, you would get two completely various works. Every detail, be it the equipment of a ship or a wave, is worked out with the smallest strokes, creating a sense of reality of what is happening.

Recurring motifs, such as spans of arches, are not uncommon in Roberta. He uses the same technique in his work “Medieval Moonlight"(Medieval Moonlight), in which the openings of Gothic windows to the right edge of the canvas become silhouettes of monks.



All of the artist’s works are invariably associated with the theme of imagination, so very often children are present in the paintings, through whose eyes we can observe the transformation of reality. Swinging on a swing can send a child to unprecedented heights, where you can even look at trees from above, as shown in the work “On the Upswing”, and swimming at night in a lake from the film “The Phenomenon of Floating” , becomes a journey in endless space.

The paintings of Robert Gonsalves surprise and fascinate at the same time. The painter gives his viewers the opportunity to return to almost forgotten children's games, in which the patchwork quilt became fields, and the bends of the streams turned into beautiful maidens of the spring. Perhaps this is precisely the magic of his works, in which fantasy merges with reality.

Today I will talk about wonderful artist from Canada Rob Gonsalves ( Rob Gonsalves). The paintings of this artist cannot be confused with anyone else’s - they all one way or another show the illusory nature of our perception real world. Maybe that's why the style in which the master works is called " magical realism"And indeed, if you look closely at each of the artist’s works, you will not find anything fantastic or implausible in any one individual detail. And, nevertheless, as a whole, the scene created by the artist is impossible and unreal! Gonsalves so skillfully erases the line in the transitions between one reality and another in the same picture, which cannot be explained otherwise than by magic.


Gonsalves was born into a family of Romanian gypsies in Toronto, Canada in 1959. Since childhood, he was attracted to drawing; he drew everything he saw around him. By the age of twelve, having comprehended the laws of perspective, he became interested in drawing various fantastic buildings. Later, after studying architecture at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto and Art College in Ontario, Rob began working as an architect, but continued to create his fantastic paintings for his love of drawing. He was attracted by the possibility of playing with perspective and symmetry, and he drew inspiration from the works of such graphic masters as Tanguy, Magritte, and Escher. In search of the possibility of transforming the shapes and contours of objects into something unexpectedly new, Rob achieved unprecedented skill. In 1990 at art exhibition in Toronto, his work received enormous recognition and, guided by this, he decided to devote his time entirely to artistic work.
One of the famous works The Sun Sets Sail.

This is one of the artist's signature works, in which Rob masterfully handles perspective and light. When you first look at the picture, you won’t see anything on it except 2-3 sailboats, the sea and the cloudy sky, but what the artist does can’t be called anything other than magic - and now a fantastic aqueduct appears in front of us, stretching into the distance. The theme of aqueducts is often present in Gonsalves' work. The shape and structure of these structures mysteriously transform into something unexpected and amazing...

Toward the Horizon

The structure and material of the buildings undergoes amazing transformations upon closer examination.

Acrobatic Engineering

In general, Rob Gonsalves loves and knows how to work with natural materials: the sea and waves are so close in shape and structure to mountain ranges with their snowy peaks that it is sometimes completely impossible to find the line of transition from one to another in the master’s paintings. As children, we often look at clouds and see some kind of animals in them. The artist uses his imagination to perfection!

Aquatic Mounting

Another fertile theme for fantasies with magical transformation is the play of light and shadow in the bizarre folds of matter and clothing. The terrain also becomes a tool for creating illusion. This is reflected in many of the author’s paintings

Carved in Stone

Water Dancing

Ladies Of The Lake

Silhouettes and outlines of objects familiar to us create images of completely unusual and unexpected things. Grass, leaves, plants - everything serves to disguise magical transitions from one reality to another. Knowledge of the laws of perspective is skillfully used to imperceptibly replace one object with another. THAT, on the one hand of the picture we see as objects of inanimate nature, on the other hand it becomes animate. Try to take a closer look and find the line where this transition occurs - I’m not sure that you will find it!

Medieval Moonlight


The Listening Fields

Ship masts turn into ship forest...

Sailing Islands

Matter is often the camouflage material in Gonsalves' paintings. Behind the silhouettes of curtains and drapes other, fantastic worlds appear.

Making Mountains

Astral Projections

Being a professional architect, the artist cannot ignore the topic of transforming some building elements into others.

Cathedral Of Commerce

Trees, the sky and their reflection in the water serve as assistants for these transformations.

When The Lights Were Out

As Above And So Below(As above, so below)

High Park Pickets

Sweet City


Gonsalves' world is not so much fantastic as it is invisible to the ordinary observer. Most of the objects and phenomena in the paintings are quite earthly, but their arrangement and style of presentation forces the observer to look at the world created by the artist much more broadly, through the eyes of a child who sees his own dreams and fantasies in ordinary things. Maybe this is why his paintings often depict children as guides to their dream world?

Phenomenon of Floating

Big Air

Tree House in Autumn

Rob Gonsalves is a highly sought after artist. Exhibitions of his paintings are held in many cities in the USA, Canada and other countries. Private collectors, corporations and government agencies are hunting for his works. His rare paintings can be found among politicians, businessmen, and embassies different countries and in museum collections. With all this, the artist is an extremely non-public person, which adds a certain aura of mystery to him. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious award Governor General's Award in the category "Children's Literature - Illustrations" for his book Imagine A Day. On this moment in the publishing house Simon & Schuster Three illustrated books by the author have already been published where he shares the secrets of his vision of the world.

Today I will talk about the wonderful artist from Canada Rob Gonsalves ( Rob Gonsalves). The paintings of this artist cannot be confused with anyone else - all of them, in one way or another, show the illusory nature of the perception of our real world. Maybe that’s why the style in which the master works is called “magical realism.” And indeed, if you look closely at each of the artist’s works, you will not find anything fantastic or implausible in any one particular detail. And yet, in general, the scene created by the artist is impossible and unreal! Gonsalves so skillfully blurs the line in the transitions between one reality and another in the same picture that it cannot be explained except by magic.

Gonsalves was born into a family of Romanian gypsies in Toronto, Canada in 1959. Since childhood, he was attracted to drawing; he drew everything he saw around him. By the age of twelve, having comprehended the laws of perspective, he became interested in drawing various fantastic buildings. Later, after studying architecture at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto and Art College in Ontario, Rob began working as an architect, but continued to create his fantastic paintings for his love of drawing. He was attracted by the possibility of playing with perspective and symmetry, and he drew inspiration from the works of such graphic masters as Tanguy, Magritte, and Escher. In search of the possibility of transforming the shapes and contours of objects into something unexpectedly new, Rob achieved unprecedented skill. In 1990, at an art exhibition in Toronto, his work received enormous recognition and, guided by this, he decided to devote his time entirely to artistic work.
One of the famous works The Sun Sets Sail.

This is one of the artist's signature works, in which Rob masterfully handles perspective and light. When you first look at the picture, you won’t see anything on it except 2-3 sailboats, the sea and the cloudy sky, but what the artist does can’t be called anything other than magic - and now a fantastic aqueduct appears in front of us, stretching into the distance. The theme of aqueducts is often present in Gonsalves' work. The shape and structure of these structures mysteriously transform into something unexpected and amazing...

Toward the Horizon

The structure and material of the buildings undergoes amazing transformations upon closer examination.

Acrobatic Engineering

In general, Rob Gonsalves loves and knows how to work with natural materials: the sea and waves are so close in shape and structure to mountain ranges with their snowy peaks that it is sometimes completely impossible to find the line of transition from one to another in the master’s paintings. As children, we often look at clouds and see some kind of animals in them. The artist uses his imagination to perfection!

Aquatic Mounting

Another fertile theme for fantasies with magical transformation is the play of light and shadow in the bizarre folds of matter and clothing. The terrain also becomes a tool for creating illusion. This is reflected in many of the author’s paintings

Carved in Stone


Water Dancing


Ladies Of The Lake


Silhouettes and outlines of objects familiar to us create images of completely unusual and unexpected things. Grass, leaves, plants - everything serves to disguise magical transitions from one reality to another. Knowledge of the laws of perspective is skillfully used to imperceptibly replace one object with another. THAT, on the one hand of the picture we see as objects of inanimate nature, on the other hand it becomes animate. Try to take a closer look and find the line where this transition occurs - I’m not sure that you will find it!

Medieval Moonlight



The Listening Fields


Ship masts turn into ship forest...

Sailing Islands

Matter is often the camouflage material in Gonsalves' paintings. Behind the silhouettes of curtains and drapes other, fantastic worlds appear.

Making Mountains

Astral Projections

Being a professional architect, the artist cannot ignore the topic of transforming some building elements into others.

Cathedral Of Commerce

Trees, the sky and their reflection in the water serve as assistants for these transformations.

When The Lights Were Out

As Above And So Below(As above, so below)

High Park Pickets

Sweet City

Gonsalves' world is not so much fantastic as it is invisible to the ordinary observer. Most of the objects and phenomena in the paintings are quite earthly, but their arrangement and style of presentation forces the observer to look at the world created by the artist much more broadly, through the eyes of a child who sees his own dreams and fantasies in ordinary things. Maybe this is why his paintings often depict children as guides to their dream world?

Phenomenon of Floating


Still Waters

Rob Gonsalves was one of the first artists whose work I became acquainted with through the Internet. Master of trompe l'oeil paintings and surreal optical illusions.

No wonder that paintings by Rob Gonsalves so popular on the Internet. Their unusual nature is the best way to promote “viral” spread.

Rob Gonsalves Brief Biography

Rob Gonsalves was born in Toronto, one of the... largest cities Canada and the most multinational. By the way, Rob’s nationality is, who would have thought, gypsy.

In young age artist was fond of the works of Tanguy, Dali, Magritte and Escher. It was these guys who had a fundamental influence on Rob's work. Perhaps most of all paintings by Rob Gonsalves from Magritte and Escher.

After graduating from college, Rob worked for a time as an architect and also painted trompe l'oeil murals and worked on theatrical scenery. After successfully participating in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, he devoted himself entirely to drawing.

Books with illustrations by Rob Gonsalves “Imagine a day”, “Imagine a night”

In June 2003, Simon & Schuster released Imagine a Night, the first hardcover book featuring the artist's illustrations. Due to the success of the first book, the second, Imagine a Day, was soon published, which in 2004 won the Governor General's Award (one of Canada's most prestigious awards) in the category of illustrations for children's literature.

Illustrations by Rob Gonsalves

The Canadian’s works amaze with the intricacies of reality, enliven the imagination, and make you again imagine yourself as a child who flies in dreams and fantasies. His images consist of a combination of ordinary objects and phenomena, but in the most extraordinary way. And the “ordinariness” of objects and characters, perhaps, only enhances the impression of spatial tricks.

The artist’s favorite trick is spatial illusions, obviously, he’s seen enough from Escher. The paintings themselves do not always sparkle with beauty, but the ideas are very good.

Most of the paintings by which we know Goncalves are taken from children's books with his illustrations “Imagine a Night” 2003, “Imagine a Day” 2005, and “Imagine a Place” 2008.

Imagine a day when you don't need wind to fly.
Imagine the day when everything you build will touch the sky (from books)

I like to paint images that create a connection between the human built environment and what happens in nature, this was the starting point for developing an image that expresses my affinity for what are considered mutually exclusive things. Rob Gonsalves

Books by Rob Gonsalves are available on the pirate gathering of all Rus' - root tracker, you can also buy on Amazon or the publisher's website - Google to the rescue.

A short documentary about Rob Gonsalves on YouTube - only if you know bourgeois.