Corné Akkers Artworks

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printables - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/12/26/duivelsberg-25-12-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-duivelsberg-25-12-23/ Newest Addition This graphite pencil drawing ‘Duivelsberg – 25-12-23’ is my newest addition to my ever growing Berg en Dal Series. Last pastel was great to do and I am inspired enough to expand the series with new ones. The scenery has everything a landscape artist could wish for. Even little creeks with wonderful water reflections run through it. I’m very much an advocate of this region. I often dwell here except for today. Which is Christmas by the way. It’s gloomy outside so I’d stick to an earlier reference photo I used for this one. Drawing During Christmas Last works consist of two pastels and an oil painting. ‘Sinterklaas in Voorburg – 03-12-23’ was my last graphite pencil drawing. That’s due to my intention to take up my pastel chalks once again. Sometimes you simply forget about a certain medium. With one in progress I feel confident to do a little sidestep in graphite again. Besides that, I’m with my parents now and t.v. shows don’t attrack me that much. What can an artist during such a holiday than to sip on an Irisch coffee and simply draw? To the East Last artworks handling this area were situated in the west. I thought it was about time to do a sketch of the Duivelsberg to the east of Berg en Dal. You might remember the scene. ‘Beek – 21-07-19’ is made live on just about the same location as this one. The dominant tree in the middle of the drawing is the same anyway. There is this path that leads to the Filosofendal. From that I took a picture in the direction of this very tree. Artistic Approach As to my artistic approach there was a nice distribution of tonal values I could work with. In the front there were many nice dark tonal regions. These are the leafy structures in the upper part of corner and the lower part formed by the path. The aim was to make this one not cubist as the previous but impressionist. These decisions came on a whim really. I think I fell in love with the smashing chiaroscuro depiction. The tonal distribution in the picture lends itself to impressionism more than to abstract forms cubistically. I’m glad I can handle, together with surrealism, all these styles. I hope I put a distinct mark on all these three and people will be able to acknowledge that. Graphite pencil drawing (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite matt, 14B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Available as original (if not sold), prints & printable. Check my website for more info: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/12/20/berg-en-dal-19-12-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-berg-en-dal-19-12-23/ Berg en Dal – 19-12-23 Another Go in Pastel This pastel drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 19-12-23’ is an elaboration of a graphite pencil drawing from May this year. After Golden 13-12-23 I wanted to do something different. Maybe altogether doing landscapes in pastel is on my mind again for quite a while now. My Series under the same name I sold out long ago. They are scattered over the whole word: China, America and Europe. Perhaps you remember Dali and Picasso, two great artists who were commercial talents as well. It’s obvious I love Berg en Dal so much and all pastels have been sold. Why combine these two facts and have another go? Cubism Back in 2014 when I made these pastels I was only discovering and forging my cubist style into roundism. That is, with regard to the female form. Later I started to apply cubism to cityscapes and landscapes as well. An example is the Schiedam Series. Well, preliminary work has been done already in this particular case. I liked the concept that much I decided this to be the kick-off for additions to the series. Approach Setting out proportions and forms was easy. Colors aren’t, obviously due to their relative character. That is why I decided for a save bet: pink and purples, orange, blue and green. So two cool and two profound warm colors. The trick is to not explode into colour saturation too much right away. Softening those later is quite a drag. Soft pastels like Schmincke simply don’t allow much of a second coat on top of a first. So, walking on the brink for me. Got that right, then I found some colored patches in the background too protruding. Contour delineations were to harsh. I soften them by rubbed them together. Finally I topped it off by enforcing some linear structures in the trees in the front. Surely I don’t think I can improve it now so I stopped. Pastel drawing on Clairfontaine Pastel Mat paper (69.4 x 49.8 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/12/13/golden-13-12-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-golden-13-12-23/ Pastel Again This pastel drawing ‘Golden – 13-12-23’ follows directly after my last oil painting ‘Cosmic Dance – 10-12-23’. Last time I made a pastel ‘Melina Noëlle – 17-09-22’ was a long time ago. That was merely a sketch. Lately I like doing more oil paintings because I think those lag considerably behind graphite pencil drawings in number. Besides that, there are so many drawings waiting to be converted to oil paint. But what about pastels? There are artworks I did in all three executions like my Singularity series. In fact I had just the right piece in mind and that was ‘Roundism – 22-03-17’. Personally, I think this one also could be well put into a cubist oil in the near future. Golden Series Naturally this one fits right in the Golden Series I started three years ago. I must confess it has proven not to be the most popular series. I am happy with it nonetheless. The series revolves around the representation of complexions of women of color. I became interested in colours they bear and the complex relations between these colors. Such may also be caused by my regular model who is of Indian descendance. There are so many colour varieties ranging from orange, yellow and pink to blue, purple and even green. These I had in mind right from the start. Nor Realist Nor Abstract You see, transfering the drawing is easy because the concept and the abstract forms are already there. In the past and also now I see the biggest trouble is to choose the right color scheme. However, this doesn’t necessarily will match possibilities of forms in monochrome. Therefor I had to adjust them a bit in order to have colors represent bodily features in an appropiate manner. Even that I figured out very quickly. The most challenging part though was to make both the realist aspect and the level of abstraction plausible. Almost at the end I found the depiction had become too realistic. Therefor I enforced the circular blue lines in order to have people enjoy both aspects. I hope they do. Do you? Pastel drawing on Clairfontaine Pastel Mat paper (69.4 x 49.8 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers

Available for sale (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/12/10/co... Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/print... Great Concept This oil painting ‘Cosmic Dance – 10-12-23’ is an elaboration of my graphite pencil drawing ‘Roundism – 10-03-20’. Many of them still are in queue. Another one finished though. As explained before I consider all my sketches and drawings prestudies for paintings. It goes without saying I choose the ones I consider the best first. This one I always liked because of the concept. The reference picture I used is from the 1920s or maybe early 1930s. Unfortunately I couldn’t retrieve a name so I cannot give credit to the original photographer. A great model she is too by the way. I am fond of the overstretched position. Therefor I hope I can find a woman who can strike such a pose any time soon now. Tune Down Color Saturation So far so good. I transferred the model freehandedly and quickly. Then I found myself facing the real challenge like I knew I had it coming. Normally I carefully avoid using the same color schemes over and over again. Surely that’s out of fear of getting bored or becoming a one trick pony and so I experimented. Yeah, right! Soon the painting exploded into colors way too saturated. That’s what I also suffered from doing the last oil, called ‘Nina – 12-10-23’. Lately I am very sensitive to this phenomenon. Perhaps this has something to do with my taste becoming more subtle. I have read about artists in the past going through the same process. In younger years one often ‘twist and shout’ whereas in later years one becomes receptive to browns and greys. They represent more subtle conversations between colors. Therefor I always associate colors with human relations. Walk Down the Path Consequently I decided to change things around a bit and redo big planes in the negative space first. I let them vary from black, earth reds, greens and then blue. It doesn’t happen that often I used this hugh amounts of black. I remember Renoir called it the ‘queen of colors’. When I come to think of it the oil resembles last two paintings both in style and color scheme. It is as if this is the path I just had to walk down. Besides that, even though I am interested in laying thick patches of paint I have realized something else. Everybody is or has been doing that for ages now. I can’t excel in that or stand out in the crowd. Therefor I’d rather stick with smooth transitions a little bit longer. They are distinct and represent the subtlety I wanted to create. Title The title ‘Cosmic Dance’ refers not only to the dancing lady but merely to the dance of frequencies of light. The woman only represents them. I paraphrase the first sentences of Genesis: First there was darkness and out of that light and colors arose. Worth mentioning is I was listening to ‘Kozmik’ by Ziggy Marley, making up this title. Everything in its right place! Oil on wood panel (100 x 63 cm)

Visit my website for sales info (original (if not sold), prints & printable): Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/12/04/sinterklaas-in-voorburg-03-12-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-sinterklaas-in-voorburg-03-12-23/ Refurbishing This graphite pencil drawing ‘Sinterklaas in Voorburg – 03-12-23’ is my first one after I my big operation on my website. It doesn’t happen that often I skip a beat. That is, not producing a drawing or painting per week but once in a while it does. Last one was ‘Clingendael – 15-11-23’. You see, I was working on refurbishing my website for months now. That is finished now. If you want to, you can have a peek and let me know what you think. Back to drawing because I missed that most intensely and I even have an oil under way. Sinterklaas in Town Saturday 18th November after art class I had another cultural activity. I had to attend a concert of the Voorburgs Vocaal Ensemble in the Koningskerk at 3 PM. Time for bite to eat in advance and so I went straight into the Herenstraat. I didn’t realize Sinterklaas (dutch Santa Claus) was in town. Many children all dressed up reminded me to that fact though. There he was, walking down from his steamboot into the Kerkstraat. However, it was raining cats and dogs. On a whim I decided to take some photos. In front of Restaurant Barquichon he stopped in front of a group of children to greet them. Off I went to the concert and forgot about the pics I took. Elections That was until after our elections for a new parliament last November 22nd. Now there is this guy called ‘Geert Wilders’ who won the elections. Many kicked up a lot of fuss because his ‘party’ doesn’t take our constitution too seriously. His programme show a lot of topics possibly conflicting with democratic principles. One divisive factor is the wanted return of ‘Black Pete’, the loyal Servant of Sinterklaas. Wokers and anti-racists fought for de-blackening him because of the association with our national slavery history. Not Wilders. He suffers from the Golden-Age syndrome and wants a return to traditional values. The old times were the best and so Black Pete is back on the menu. Innocent Children’s Festival These times are troublesome. Many in The Netherlands fear Trumpian situations. Maybe even a political pull to the right like in Slovakia, Poland or Hungary. I am one of those many. On the other hand I don’t like movements like ‘Kick Out Black Pete’ and wokers. They lay claim to the most political correct opinion nowadays. Before you know it, Pete has to be contracted as an employee with social benefits, health insurance and above all, equal to Sinterklaas. Preferably white and perhaps Sint black for a change. An innocent children’s festival attacked by both sides. Isn’t that what’s going on? There is no middle way it seems. Everything is shredded to pieces by extremists. I hope this drawing will remind people of the innocence and joyful character the concept of Sint and Piet

Available as original (if not sold), prints & printable. Learn more: Website: https://corneakkers.com/2023/11/16/clingendael-15-11-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-clingendael-15-11-23/ A Bit of Mystery This graphite pencil drawing ‘Clingendael – 15-11-23’ is the second impressionist drawing in a row. Last one of Amsterdam already was devoid of any cubist styling. This one is no different. The scenery is different though. This one stays close to home. Clingendael is just around the corner and I often dwell there. Luckily it offers all nice essentials a park can offer: trees, meadows, a mansion, water and reflections. Especially those I like the best. They are a bit of mystery. What is reflected is different from what lurks beneath. I always have to think of ‘De Koele Meren des Doods’, indicating reflected light on lakes, canals and ponds. The living light is on one side and in the depth darkness and death as two flipsides of a coin. A6 It so happened to be that I forgot to bring along my A5 sketchbook to Brugman where I teach. I had some time left before art class started so I bought myself an A6 one. Actually it was quite some time ago I worked on this small size paper. Probably in 2019 when I also made some impressionist ones of Kethel and Amsterdam that I even sold. Due to the size and the resolution of the paper you get these incredible grainy textures. It almost works like a impressionistic filter. Something hardly to overstate because that’s the very thing I want for landscapes in general. Often I see contour delineations in works of others too harsh and defined. Therefor I always take good care to avoid these. Rather avoid too many details but only suggest them such as leaves on a branch. This one I completed in one go. Graphite pencil drawing (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite Matt, 14B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Available as original (if not sold), prints & printable. Visit my website for learn more: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/11/09/the-magere-brug-in-amsterdam-09-11-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-the-magere-brug-in-amsterdam-09-11-23/ Clueless as to Female Forms This graphite pencil drawing ‘The Magere Brug in Amsterdam – 09-11-23’ is rather realistic looking but let me explain why. Of late I started sketching urban sceneries and landscapes again. St.-Bavo in Haarlem – 03-10-23 was the first one in a while. In the meantime I am racking my brain on what to do with the female form next. Art Deco, neo deco, roundism and/or cubism paired to surrealism and impressionism, I don’t know. I have made so many of them. It’s only natural to shift from bodyscapes to landscapes and back once in a while. There’s also another reason. I started again with my In Hoc Signo painting. Lots of work to do. Creating these A5-size sketches is a break from the grand tale I try to play out on wood panel. Amsterdam Trip This having said, there are plenty of artistic motifs to work out. A graveyard of pictures in my archive I took throughout the years, doing citytrips and walking in nature. So it happened I walked out the Hermitage Amsterdam one time, now called H’Art. There I visited a Rembrandt and other old 17th century dutch old masters exhibition, coming from St. Petersburg. Going for a bite-to-eat in the centre I had a lovely view on the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) afterwards. In the back the Amstelsluizen were visible and behind them the Sarpathistraat. I liked the stacked outlook of all three structures and thought I’d turn it into a drawing one day. That was this day. Impressionist Only My last drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 02-11-23’ already was more impressionist than cubist. This one totally is devoid of any form of cubism. I intented a sort of cubist styling though but soon realized that was not in the books this time. Simply because the scenery looked rather flat. Also because I feared abstracting forms stacked behind eachother would deliver me only some kind of amorphous rubble pile. Instead I turned to regular impressionism or realism for that matter. I kept the bridge, buildings and trees in the back rather sketchy and vague. Therefor the Skinny Bridge stands out more, just like the canal boat in the front. Fun to do and this style reminds me of younger days when I sketched in the surroundings of Nijmegen. Graphite pencil drawing (Sakura 0.5 mm, 4B) on Winsor & Newton paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Availabe as original (if not sold), prints & printable. Visit my website to learn more: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/11/02/berg-en-dal-02-11-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-berg-en-dal-02-11-23/ A Perfect Mixture This graphite pencil drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 02-11-23’ is a sort of mixture of cubism and impressionism. Less abstracted than the previous one but more cubist than the one before. That was my very aim. I’m still searching for the perfect balance between both styles. In fact, throughout the years my quest has been to prevent people from detecting a certain style. In the past I have been accused for being the new Picasso. In earlier days: “Hey, your style resembles Edward Hopper’s or Dali’s”. More than any other artist I long for creating a style to call my own, like Van Gogh or Cézanne did. My gut feeling still tells me to let both styles converge so they cancel eachother out, becoming one entirely new. What do you say? I think, it’s the only way to come up with something new. The Very Spot The motif is situated in Berg en Dal, Gelderland, Netherlands. At least, I guess it is. I couldn’t see it clearly on the map. I think Beek-Ubbergen is just around the corner. In fact, the very spot is at the end of the second-last path to the right from the Rijksstraatweg. There is this white house you can see behind the dominant tree. They rent it out as a vacation home. Anyway, the Duivelsberg is to the left and it’s a lovely valley that I frequently visit. Nearby I made a small drawing in 2019. Grainy Structure I like how the Winsor & Newton paper reacts to the Pitt Graphite Matt pencil made by Faber Castell. It’s rather grainy. When I draw a plane I can either rub it out or enjoy the ribbled structure. It favors an impressionist look but it’s still good enough for cubism though. These kinds of paper are conducive to vague contour delineations in the back. That’s something harder to achieve using Bristol paper. Its structure is rather dense and suited for fine detailing. Hence, there is a nice sketchy feel to these kinds of drawings. Don’t you agree? Graphite pencil drawing (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite Matt, 14B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/10/31/berg-en-dal-30-10-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-berg-en-dal-30-10-23/ Something More Cubist This graphite pencil drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 30-10-23’ is my next one in the series of the same name. Doing the last one I really got the hang of it. That one was rather impressionistic than cubistic but I really don’t mind. I like the result nonetheless. However, a former drawing lingered in my mind, a scenery much more abstracted. That’s how it goes, from a more realistic approach to abstract. Years ago I also drew a cubist forest in the same municipality. It happens to be that I found the perfect reference picture. Therefor I was very eager to turn it into something beautiful. Sparkling Diamonds You see, last weekend I went to the actual place. There I took some pictures of wonderful hillsides with trees in Autumn colors. Not the abovemeant picture though. That one I took in the Summertime. It was in my folder of ideas on my computer still waiting to be used. The actual scenery was full of leafy structures. I believe it’s somewhere between the Jan Dommer van Polderveldtsweg and the Boterberg. Though leaves light was scattered across a narrow path lingering through the hills with tall trees marking it. They resembled sparkling diamonds waiting for me to pluck them with a pencil. Blinded by the Light My cubist forest interpretation of the Valley of the Philosophers from 2015 was done in the same style. Personally, I think this one might be a more refined. There are plenty of cubist planes alright but when I compared the two I spot differences. Planary distribution is more subtle without getting to fragmented though. It’s what you see when you walk down a leafy path anyway. Sometimes you almost get blinded my the light, disturbed by restless patterns of dark and light. What do you say, does it lean more to the impressionist side than cubist? Not that I care much. Graphite pencil drawing (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite Matt, 14B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/10/25/berg-en-dal-25-10-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-berg-en-dal-25-10-23/ A Sort of Try-out This graphite pencil drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 25-10-23’ puts me back on track. Lately I was planning to do some more cityscapes, treescapes and landscapes. Throughout my career as artist I consider, together with my cubist female forms, them the cement of my art. Surely, once in a while a bigger painting comes up. That’s the grand tale I have to tell from time to time. This little drawing at hand I completed today by definition is a sort of try-out. I like to experiment with slight changes in style in order to see if can get away with it. Boterberg You see, I drew one last May, almost the same spot. In Berg en Dal, Gelderland, Netherlands that is. I was curious if I could get the same quality again. I liked it and I like the very spot that is most dear to me as well. Same treelines and hilly outlook, slightly differently rendered though. We are talking about the Boterberg, part of Beek-Ubbergen. Higher up it could be Berg en Dal. I’m not sure. As stated before, dutch hills in the eyes of foreigners look ridiculous. However, any elevation in The Netherlands is good enough to spend some time on. Besides that, I don’t need extented forest like the Big Sur, California. I was there once and it seemed I could get lost there forever. The hills outside Nijmegen offer me just the right amount of artistic motifs. Impressionism or Cubism? As to the style, I must confess I didn’t get a cubist quality again. Although there are some cubist or roundistic elements in it, I missed a couple of big trees. In the other drawing there were some big striking trees at the right. Somehow I felt a more abstract cubist approach wouldn’t work in this one. I feared the scenery otherwise would have become a bit too much amorph looking. The artwork tends more to impressionism than cubism. What do you think? Last but not least, the shadow in the lower left corner is me. I remember I felt like one of those small figures straight out of a Caspar David Friedrich paintings. Graphite pencil drawing (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite Matt, 14B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2019/07/01/louise-brooks-26-10-14/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-louise-brooks-26-10-14/ Lulu This is the oil version of the prestudy in pastel of Lulu, silent movies actress and flapper girl from the 1920s - 1930s. Earlier in 2014 I did a first portrait of her, called ‘Lulu – 05-05-14’. On the photo I liked her eyebrows on different Heights and the ambivalent look in general. That is why these features called for my style of cubism. All My Color Skills Jan van Eyck’s motto was ‘Als Ich Kan’ (everything (or) as I can) and in this painting I employed all my skills with regard to color at that time. Next to tonal rhythyms I focused on the relations between colors because basically that is all what color is about. Color Relations One color is not a color but two have a relation. One can say about the other: I am cooler and vice versa warmer. If you have three colors then the amount of relations rises to 9. A relation can show both a cool and warm aspect, dependant on the ajacent color to the left or right. If, for example, green is bordered by blue on the right, it will appear to look warmer but when it is ajacent to orange on the left it looks cooler at the same time. I love playing around with these so-called simultaneous contrasts because they tend to live things up. Color Saturation A difficult aspect of mastering art is the understanding color saturation. A color can look very dull or bright. Next to the physics of color and light, complementary colors can be mixed in order to affect the brightness and turn them into grayed or browned varieties. That is quite alright. Most of the colors we see around is, are dull and strong, bright colors are signal colors and we do not want to look at strong signals all the time. One may develop photokeratitis. Optical Illusion In other words, strong colors tend to wear out the eye quickly and must be employed carefully and in low doses next to dull ones. In this one I played around with the saturational degrees as well. An example of this, is the saturated orange plaines in the face and the more dull varieties of the same color on her shoulder. The strange thing I discovered is that brighter colors appear to be lighter than their dull counterparts but that is mre optical illusion. When you squint your eyes they show the same tonal values. That is why the more saturated pink plain on her shoulder does not fall out of place from a tonal point of view in relation to the browner orange plains surrounding it. It is a kind of eye-teaser. Relativety I can spend a lifetime telling about my passion for colors but as is the case with relations in general, there is no end to development in them. They all seem so relative as is the case with relations in general. Must be the etymology. I have to learn much more and I in fact I did in the years after this painting. I still like this painting though. Epilogue In 2020 I was inspired by Lulu once more. It became a colored pencil drawing. Oil on linen (60 x 80 x 1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers

Love for Fabrics Blue Velvet is my next one after the more comprehensive work on Geesje Kwak. Time for an elaboration of a previous drawing Solarised Roundism – 01-07-22. Not named after the movie but rather a reason to unleash my satin fetish. Not entirely coincidental I happen to have some of that fabric in my studio. It suits my regular model’s skin complexion quite nicely. You certainly agree with me that all things blue complement her orange ocres in a most smashing way. This is not my first project concerning solarisation in oil. Last one was Solarized Roundism – 07-03-22. It sort of kept lingering on in the back of my head I had to do another one. Not a cubist one or in my roundism style. As to fabrics in general, I share my love to depict them with people like Gabriël Metsu and Jan van Eyck. Accidental Solarisation This time I wanted to sort of have the process of solarization take over. Let its styling create the magic on my behalf. We artists often are faced with artistic challenges. What to do next? How to come to an attractive idea to put on linen? I guess the whole world is looking for a great idea or to steal it from those who found one. That is why I turn to accidentalism regularly. This time I simply let my image editor GIMP fool around with the curves in some of the session pictures I have of her. Surely such satin fabric when solarised would deliver me incredible bling-bling effects. So it did and I started from there. Furthermore I abstracted the folds just the level of recognizability. There are elements of roundism to be found but this time assisted by computerized algorithms. Color The challenge also was to put solarisation into color. Normally created by overexposure photographts to light it is best shown in black and white. I wondered how an attractive color scheme and solarization combined would look like. The most saturated parts of are painted with YInMn paint, also known as ‘Oregon blue’. Other blues I use are Old Holland Dark Blue and Rembrandt Phtalo Blue Reddish, just to give it some variety. All this blue violence needed saturated warm pigments in the skin. I kept a slight rough edge in the complexion in contrast to satin slickness. As to the background the initial idea was to keep the underpainting: Perylene Black mixed with Titanium White. Later I found out the hefty colors in the main theme needed some counterbalancing in the negative space. A Woke This painting is also meant as a support for women of color. Let’s stop calling them ‘black’. That is not a color. Why is the Woke movement so fond of naming people as such? White folks aren’t white either. I guess only artists understand me immediately. Colorful is more accurate, let alone more pleasant to the ears and eyes. Let my oil painting be the judge of that. In this respect the result looks rather expressive, even expressionist. Therefor I consider it deliberate, even urgent. So much for Woke! Oil on linen (70 x 100 cm) Framed (103.8 x 73.5 x 3.8) Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/10/19/neo-deco-18-10-23-cubist-study-after-lauren-albin-guillot/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-neo-deco-18-10-23-cubist-study-after-lauren-albin-guillot/ The Return of Lauren This graphite pencil drawing ‘Neo Deco – 18-10-23’ is a return to die hard art deco motifs. Initially I planned to draw more landscapes and I certainly will live up to my intentions. It’s just that sometimes you come across one of those motifs that is too impressive to ignore. You imply can’t get it out from your head. That’s what happened with a great photo of Lauren Albin Guillot. It is not the first time though. Last year I also used one of her photos for a drawing. What is it with these 1930s photos? I already told you about their great tonal schemes. I generally consider black & white pictures more charming. However, in the picture at hand from 1935 you see she also has a keen eye for abstract composition. A Bit Guilty Picking these kinds of motifs out I always feel considerably guilty. Certainly the photos are not mine and I can only pay homage to the original photographer. The only thing I can do is to add value to it, something new. The first plan was to incorporate some ambiguous images I directly saw. There was a dolphin in the reflection. Well, rather not this time. It would have only ruined a perfectly balanced scene. No shame in changing your mind on a whim though. Harsh Linear Structures Instead, I chose to incorporate some harsh linear structures running on the model’s body contour delineation. Moreover, I also increased the white space across the overall depiction. This way I created more vibancy in the negative space than shown in the reference picture. The body didn’t need a lot of abstraction. Only some contrasts in round versus straight forms. This having said, the glory goes to Lauren for the biggest part. As artist, you always stand one someone’s shoulders. Back to Landscapes Back to landscapes and cityscapes although I will keep on expanding my Neo Deco series in time. Those you can sketch outdoors or at home aided by a reference photo taken at the spot. One day I hope my art will generate enough revenue to have a big ass house. There I can create these kinds of sceneries Lauren staged. There is little room in my apartment to do so. Graphite pencil (Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencil 14B) drawing on Talens Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/10/04/st-bavo-in-haarlem-03-10-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-st-bavo-in-haarlem-03-10-23/ A Break This graphite pencil drawing ‘St.-Bavo in Haarlem – 03-10-23’ is a break from the continuous stream of cubist female forms. So it goes, on a whim I decided to postpone them for a while and return to sketching. Just for the fun of it, creating a drawing in one day. Well, not exactly one day. I started yesterday before art class started when I still had time before my students arrived. Only a couple of compositary lines to set things up. Today I did 95% in one go. This is the result. Hatching Again It’s done in my typical hatched strokes style I like to call my own. Throughout the years I kept on executing pencil and pastel drawings in this fashion. Surely it’s to practise my hands and I guess just for the love for the line. What else than simple diagonal lines to begin with. See if I can deliver them parallel across the paper. Setting out big proportion came next. Well, nothing special to mention. It’s my first after Marlot – 27-04-23 anyway. Back then I had some ambitions to go out and sketch that very Spring. Instead I did a lot of work on my website but lucky for me now Autumn has arrived. Lots of beautiful colours outdoors and this drawing might be a prelude. Haarlem The scenery was not done live though. It is just a reference photo I took when I was in Haarlem. That might be some time ago, visiting Teylers Museum. The St. Bavo Church is just around the corner. I remember I was attracked by the sunlight coming from the top left corner. In this particular case the sun beam is a present created by the camera. Such a thing never presents itself during a live drawing session. Then you only are hindered by the sun and tempt to squint your eyes. Maybe the best of both worlds, wouldn’t you say? I think David Hockney would agree to that, taking his remarks on photography and art into account. Graphite pencil drawing (Sakura 0.5 mm, 4B) on Winsor & Newton Bristol board paper (21 x 14.8 x 0.1 cm – A5 format) Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printables - visit my website: Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2023/10/13/nina-12-10-23/ Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-nina-12-10-23/ First Oil This oil painting ‘Nina - 13-10-23’ follows a prestudy I made last August. As stated before, she is a great model with a gorgeous body. I feel honored to draw and paint her. This is the first oil I made of her and I hope you like it. If you like both the painting and the model you can visit her page on deviantart. Perhaps you will even recognize some motifs I used for my drawings in the recent past. Enter the World of Color Abovemeant prestudy I rendered in a style one can typify as a hotchpotch of cubism, roundism and solarisation. Worth mentioning is the challenge every artist faces to come up with something coherent in every new painting. An idea can be processed into graphite very easy, at least that’s my experience. Putting it into oil sometimes proves to be a tall order. Enter the realm of color. It’s a world in which relations between colors are never fixed or form predestined succesful combinations. Normally you can easily be inspired by colors you see during a live session. Tweaking a reference photo thereafter is also possible. If you subsequently solarize a motif then it’s opening up a can of worms though. Solarization You see, applying solarisation isn’t very difficult. It’s a matter of inverting some tonal regions whereas you keep others as they are. This doesn’t apply to the realm of colour though. In fact, color and solarization don’t match really. They are a world on their own, I think. Throwing in a color scheme almost immediately will cancel the solarized look. Perhaps that is what I wanted but it delivered me exciting yet unexplainable and inconsistent new planes. Troubles Solved Such distorted forms can appear to stand on their own too much. You see, arch enemy is a partial or even total loss of coherence in the intended composition. Guess what. That was my fate initially. I happy-go-luckily threw in some colors I liked. Soon, the painting became clotted with to many colors that also were too saturared. Enter a paintstakingly long period of doubts and desperation, searching for solutions. Finally I managed to cut to the chase. It was the color yellow being abundant. I remember my painting ‘Louise Brooks – 26-10-14’ in which I removed it too. Implementing a solution is easy yet very difficult to find. Often I feel like almost going off the rails on finding the right color scheme. However, now I find myself back on track eventually. The result is a hefty but pleasing balance between saturated and unsaturated colours. Geometric Shapes In the end I decided to incorporate a painting from the original reference picture. In the drawing I kept it out but now it came in handy. There were some geometric shapes I altered a bit. Hence, a homage to the triangle, cube and circle in the colors I used in the oil. Next tot his, I hope offer the viewer a spectacular new vision on the female form. Oil on linen (60 x 80 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers