Trompe l'oeil is a French phrase meaning "fool [or trick] the eye". It covers a range of arts and has long-established artistic and practical applications.<br /><br />You've probably seen examples of it in all sorts of forms, possibly the most basic being canvas backdrops in live theatre which blend in with a few props on stage to lead the eye to believe that you're viewing a few hundred acres behind the actors on a 20 foot deep stage. Or the gate painted on a garden wall which shows another painted vista behind it to fool the eye and mind into believing that you can see further than you can.<br /><br />The human eye in ordinary operation by ordinary people works in generalities that allow it to be fooled by trompe l'oeil art forms.<br /><br />The human eye on ordinary people works the same way when viewing anything else. If it's mostly shiny and the same colour the eye and mind think it's all the same.<br /><br />It's only concours judges and nitpickers, and those of us who are super-critical of our own work which covers most restorers of anything, who get up close and find the minute flaws that have no impact on anyone but us and the nitpickers.<br /><br />Most people couldn't pick the difference between a 95% and 100% restoration, because their mind sees and believes the overall effect just like they do when they allow their minds to think the stage actors in "Oklahoma!" are riding across the US prairie on a 30' x 20' wooden stage ten thousand miles away from the US. <br /><br />The actors might know it was a bad performance but if the audience is happy, who cares?<br /><br />I'm not advocating sloppy work, but if there's a few minor imperfections it doesn't mean it's not still a great job.
