In recent years on the Web I’ve stumbled across the work of many painters and illustrators creating photo-realistic drawings or paintings, and of course I was blown away by their skill (just look at Heikki Leis’ work, for instance). But with Jeremy Geddes it’s different, for me at least. You don’t just look at his paintings and marvel at his virtuosity. You don’t just say Wow, it looks so real, good job there! His work feels deeper, more symbolic and mysterious. He’s famous for his Cosmonaut series (The Glory of Failure, Alley and The Street are a few striking examples), and I’m really enjoying his latest efforts, such as Acedia (shown here), A Perfect Vacuum, and Failing Echo.

Like the Cosmonaut paintings where the cosmonaut is pictured in an urban context (and not simply floating in space), you look at these works and you wonder: what’s happening here? What happened before? Why the explosion? You look for symbols, metaphors, details you’re not seeing or catching, hints at a story that started elsewhere and culminated in the suspended scene, in the frozen frame Geddes chose to paint. It’s much more than photo-realism for photo-realism’s sake.

Check out more of Geddes’ work at his site, Jeremy Geddes Art — I also like looking at his blog in Flipcard view.