Artist Rob Gonsalves was born in Toronto in 1959. During his childhood, he developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age 12, his awareness of architecture grew as he learned perspective techniques and first began to paint renderings of imagined buildings.

After an introduction to artist Dali, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "magic realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work. In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe l'oeil murals and theatre sets.

Although Gonsalves' work may appear to be surrealistic, it differs in that the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. Ideas are largely generated by the external world and involve recognizable human activities, using carefully planned illusionist devices. Gonsalves injects a sense of magic into realistic scenes. As a result, the term "magic realism" describes his work accurately. His work is an attempt to represent human beings' desire to believe in the impossible.

-from http://www.sapergalleries.com/Gonsalv...