By Azera Rahman, IANS

10 steps away from the wall, a woman looks straight at you, her hands resting on a block of wood. Move closer and what seemed so real turns out to be a painting using a technique called trompe l'oeil - a trick of the eye and artist Partha Bhattacharjee's signature style.

"My paintings signify what everyone is suffering from these days - illusion. Quite often we fail to distinguish between people who are fake and genuine. From afar, my paintings seem something else - draw closer and it's something else," the Kolkata-based Bhattarcharjee said during one of his exhibitions in the capital.

Trompe l'oeil is an age-old art technique in which an optical illusion is created so that a two-dimensional painting actually appears three-dimensional. It was extensively used during the Renaissance period when Italian painters used the technique in frescoes and murals.

It has also been used in several Hollywood movies such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.