Bringing the outdoors in sounded like a simple idea, but for two sisters the project has taken on a life of its own.

Macy Whitney, owner of Corners Mansion Inn Bed and Breakfast, has been renovating the 1873 home little by little. When it was time to tackle the formal living room, a conversation with her sister sparked an idea that would come to envelope the entire room.

During her research on Victorian architecture and homes, Whitney discovered trompe l’oeil. It is a French term meaning “trick the eye.” Sometimes called illusionism, it’s a style of painting that gives the illusion of three-dimensions. The boy climbing out of the painting or a hand coming out of a drawing to finish the sketch, are all examples of trompe l’oeil.

The style of painting has been around since at least ancient Greece. The Greeks had a story about two painters who were rivals in a contest. Each would try to make a picture that produced a more perfect illusion of the real world. One, named Zeuxis, painted a likeness of grapes so natural that birds flew down to peck at them. Then his opponent, Parrhasius brought in his picture covered in a cloth. Reaching out to lift the curtain, Zeuxis was stunned to discover he had lost the contest. What had appeared to be a cloth was part of his rival’s painting.

During the Victorian era trompe l’oeil enjoyed a rebirth and many wealthy homeowners took the style off the canvas and onto the walls and ceilings. It was that discovery that led Whitney to ask her sister Whitney Newman, an accomplished artist, if she could paint a sky on the ceiling.

Newman had painted other murals before, but had not tackled clouds.

The project is 35 feet-by-17 feet and required the room be full of scaffolding. Newman bounces from one cloud to another to ensure variety.

“When you work with clouds it’s important to not be on a ladder, because otherwise your pattern all comes from the same direction,” Newman said. “You need to be able to move around and paint from this direction and then move over and paint from another.”

The room is trimmed with plaster molding depicting vines and grapes and could not be removed for painting.

“We masked everything off and sprayed it,” Whitney said. “Then we masked off the blue and pink and sprayed that. We had to use a sprayer to make sure we got back up in all the cracks and crevices.”

Newman spends six hours a day painting clouds over her head. Just like any good artist she utilizes small-scale studies and other visual renderings for reference. Newman created two studies using a 1-inch equals 1-foot scale and uses them to guide her work.

When completed the mural will be viewed from 13 feet below and will invoke a feeling of an open-air room.

Newman has been working on the mural for nearly two weeks, but doesn’t have a definitive timeline for completion. She joked that she was channeling Michelangelo. Like most artists who undertake such a project, the completed work is the ultimate goal, but it’s the process Newman enjoys.