Seeing double? Hidden inside these remarkable oil Paintings by Oleg Shuplyak lies a second layer of mind-blowing optical illusions. Behind carefully placed objects, characters, colouring and shadows, the Ukrainian painter has cleverly concealed a second figures. Blurring famous figures from art and culture with landscapes the ingenious artist's work requires a double take - or sometimes, minutes of staring - before the hidden images reveal themselves. Famous faces among those given Shuplyak's painterly treatment include John Lennon, Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Paul Gauguin, Zeus and Uncle Sam.
Using this style of painting it can be hard for the artist to balance the weight of the two images. Born on Sep 23, 1967, in the Ternopol region of the Ukraine, Shuplyak. His passion was always painting, however, and he has used the technical precision of an architect to create these intriguing optical illusions.
Often his paintings depict famous historical figures like Charles Darwin, Vincent van Gogh and William Shakespeare. The works are similar to those of the famous Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo, who is well known for evocative paintings in which detailed scenes weave together to create larger images. Ocampo has dubbed this the metamorphic style, and in his works the second image can sometimes be so subtle it is hard to discern without squinting. I hope you like Oleg Shuplyak's Optical illusion paintings
