Skip Dyrda took his inspiration from a trompe l'oeil Community Mural in Frederick, Md., where paintings on a raw concrete bridge convert the structure into a span of fantasy fieldstone. He got the window treatments and archway perspective from the art of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. (STAFF PHOTO/ROD MILLINGTON)

Deception is big in downtown Sarasota.

A 60-foot-high, 90-foot-long mural painting on the east wall of the Mediterraneo restaurant on Main Street is so photo-real, you think what you see is actual.

The illusion on the long-lived blank wall includes make-believe balustrades and two towering archways through which you can see Sarasota's lost treasures -- the John Ringling Towers and the Bickel House.

The see-through arches -- reminiscent of Richard Haas' landmark mural on Miami Beach's Fontainebleu Hotel -- are trompe l'oeil, which is French for fooling the eye.

"I did trompe l'oeil before I knew what it was," said self-taught Sarasota muralist Skip Dyrda.

Like the hotel mural, the restaurant building mural transforms a blank wall into an attention-getter. This is better than a sign -- good for business and good for the street. More businesses ought to try it. We've got buses blanketed with murals and blank walls go begging.

Dyrda got the commission from building owner Dr. Mark Kaufman, who "didn't really know what he wanted other than to dress it up," Dyrda said, adding, "I like to do more than paint a pretty picture."

Which accounts for the allusion to Sarasota's historical buildings. The mural also uses the icons of Sarasota's arts and circus history: tragedy and comedy masks, an artist's palette and a circus monkey.

The painting is so skillfully rendered, I mistook a worker on a scaffold for a real person and parked my car to go talk to him.

Dyrda took his inspiration from a trompe l'oeil Community Mural in Frederick, Md., where paintings on a raw concrete bridge convert the structure into a span of fantasy fieldstone. He got the window treatments and archway perspective from the art of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.

He got paint from the Keim Company in Germany, which guarantees its colors won't fade for 80 years, and he also used an acrylic latex special primer that adheres to masonry.

Of course, none of this matters. Paint is only as good as what's underneath. Pieces of stucco are more likely to fall off before paint fades. Dyrda notes some cracks in the stucco and hollow sounds behind parts of the wall.

But he's not worried. "The way things go in Sarasota, chances are a building will go up in the parking lot in front of the mural and cover it before the masonry falls off," he said.

"Besides, I don't get real worried about my art. If it lasts five years, I'll be happy."

It's a good thing the ancient Roman artists who painted the illusionistic frescoes on the walls of Pompeii didn't think like that. Their work still stands.