Creating Buitenplaats Leeuwenbergh – 25-03-21

Sales info: original (if not sold), prints & printable - visit my website:

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/2021/03/25/buitenplaats-leeuwenbergh-25-03-21/
Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-buitenplaats-leeuwenbergh-25-03-21/

All of a Sudden, Sun!

Last week on my way home from a student I came across Buitenplaats Leeuwenbergh. It was late in the afternoon and surprizingly a drizzly grey day turned into a blue sky with a beautiful sunset. It so happened I saw this incredible and bizarre curved tree trunk. When I passed it by all of a sudden the tree was lit by the sun. That was a definitive sign I had to immortalize this scene. I liked the overall setting: treescapes in the back, light reed in the front. However I took a picture because I did not had any drawing material at hand. In order to indicate the spot I decided to include a part of the Dorrepaal Mansion in the photo. It serves as a recognition to anyone who knows Voorburg very well. Who could have imagined this? Life is full of instant wonders lurking around the corner.

A Bit Roundism and a Lot of Impressionism

The initial mindset was to render this tree in my roundism style like my graphite pencil drawing Kethel – 13-07-19. It did not turned out that way though. Only the base of the trunk is a little bit roundish. It is because I felt a more impressionist approach would do the scene honor. The tree was best served in my graphite moves ‘in situ’. I realized I had to keep the atmospheric depth like it was and the tree is the centre of it. There is some cubist / roundistic styling though, only a bit. The verticality of the reed panicles counterbalances all things horizontal in the middle and the back of the drawing. Next to this the curves of the branches in the upper half do the rest. They swirl!

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm - A4 format)
Artist: Corné Akkers