art life 7/21/2010
11:10 PM
Page 16
imitating
14584665:Cobb Life AUG_SEPT 2010 dummied to trim size
Robert Meredith’s paintings are so detailed it looks as if you could reach into a cabinet in one of his works, retrieve an antique toy, and feel the texture that has accumulated from age and dust. The artist has made a career of creating extremely lifelike still-life paintings that feature objects – toys, dolls, dishes, sporting goods, hardware and the like – arranged in shelves, boxes, and windows. The technique he uses is called trompe l’oeil. “The word is a French phrase for ‘fool the eye’,” explains the artist. “I don’t like the term photorealistic, because then people think I paint from photographs. I paint from life.” Meredith paints what he sees in the arrangements he creates in his West Cobb studio. But there is more to the composition of his work than meets the eye, something profound that makes his paintings works of art. “There is a deeper meaning,” the lifelong Cobb resident explained. “There are relationships going on in the painting that are above and beyond what you see there. What the artist does with the things that he paints, it’s like the rhyme and meter in a poem, or the rhythm in a song. There’s a rhythm in it that holds the whole thing together. You state a theme and then make variations on that theme, very much like music or poetry.” West Cobb artist Robert Meredith does some touch up work on a painting at his home studio. Meredith is wellknown for his lifelike still life paintings of objects such as toys and hardware. Top, Meredith also paints portraits, such as the one on the right page of his pet bantam rooster, “Little Joe.” BY ALLEN BELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN GRAY AND NATHAN SELF