Chantourné Paintings. Chantourné comes from the French word, chantourner, to cut out with a fretsaw. It is a term for a picture which has been cut out along its outline and then painted in a lifelike manner. This kind of trompe-l'oeil paintings were popular in the 1600s. Mundane objects were depicted in this way and then placed in domestic situations to create a visual joke. A shoe in a corner or foodstuffs in the pantry. Another popular motif was the artist's easel with a canvass, sketches and the palette as painted by Antonio Forbera in 1686 and now in Museé Calvet in Avignon. Another chantourné easel was painted by Cornelius Gijsbrechts around 1670 and now in Statens Museum for Kunst (the National Art Museum) in Copenhagen. My paintings are not painted to deceive. The cutting away  is a distillation process, concentrating the expression. The eye sees the world selectively. Cinema and television pictures might have to be rectangular but paintings don't. The cutting out  also gives the picture an added dimension. Unlike my illustrious forebears, I paint my pictures before I carve them out. This way I retain the full freedom to paint. But it  makes the cutting out a delicate process since the smallest mistake would ruin the painting.