Mary Temple creates light with latex paint and wood stain.

Gently calling attention to often ignored interior spaces, the trompe l’oeil paintings cast shadows of wild greenery creeping in front of phantom windows and skylights. At first encounter, Temple’s work is nearly invisible:

What I hope for is that the viewer moves through several stages of understanding the piece. In the beginning there is belief that the paint is light, but as they walk through the piece, perhaps they notice that their body doesn’t interfere with what they’ve perceived as light. (They are unable to cast a shadow.) At that moment the viewer does not know what is going on, and that’s what I’m interested in. In those few minutes that they are finding an architectural solution to what they are viewing, they create a new architectural space in their imagination.

Temple’s treatment of light both grounds and delights the viewer, twisting our perception of the built environment.

View more of Temple’s work here.

(via The Jealous Curator)