Graduating in architecture from a private school in Stockholm, Swedish-born Kjell Orrling began working for a lighting fixture company in his native city when he was spotted by a European company who offered him a job in Canada, 1973, as a lighting fixture designer. When his contract was up two years later, rather than return to Sweden, he applied to stay as a landed immigrant and set up his own business designing and manufacturing lighting fixtures. Some 13 years later, Kjell successfully sold his business so he could paint full time. Kjell has never looked back, forging ahead with his career as a full-time artist. He certainly had no doubt that he would be a success when his first solo show, in Sweden, soldout in a couple of hours. Orrling's truth-to-nature water colours, such as Nefertiti, left, are very much in the tradition of trompe l'oeil, as most viewers assume his masterpieces are collages or fragmented images, not accurate renderings of balanced colouring, contextual contrast, and spatial images contained in illusionary three dimension. In 1995, Kjell Orrling was elected Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Art. [Photo, courtesy Kjell Orrling]