Beek – 18-05-23

The Very Spot

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Beek – 18-05-23’ follows my previous one of Den Haag. I wanted to do this one for a long time. That’s because I remember the very spot from a visit at age 10. There is this smashing walking route in the hills outside Nijmegen, called the ‘N70’. I have walked it many times or parts of it but the first time is burned into my memory. You come across the Kastanjedal (Chestnut Valley) on the route and a little creek runs downhill. Allegedly you could drink from it so I tried that out for sure. From the fact I write this art statement you can assume it didn’t do me much harm. There is also this wooden bridge that looks a bit makeshift. It’s probably constructed of branches from the immediate vicinity. I presume the water still is drinkable although I didn’t try this time.

Another Treescape

I felt the urge to render leafy structures in cubist planes once more though. The beamy structures of the armrests only add to the flavour. However, the challenge was to clearly depict the main theme, namely the bridge and the path lingering upwards. Next to that the leafy patterns are running all across it. They almost seem to disturbe the scenery, even ripping it apart. So it was a matter balancing out light an dark planes but also keeping the structure of the path. This way I hope to offer some guidance through the landscape but also beautiful abstract tonal qualities.

My Ambition

My initial ambition was to do another treescape in the very style as my drawing ‘Berg en Dal – 02-05-23’. ‘Gent – 08-05-23’ was a cubist one too. Looking at these latest works I can see that’s the direction I want to move into. To me it’s the perfect symbiosis of impressionism, art deco and cubism. I think my art always will be figurative of nature, touched by an impressionist and/or cubist styling. I will let myself guide by the light all the time though. To round this story up I repeat what Monet once said. “I paint the light on things, not the things themselves”. What do you think? Do you see things or are you able to see only the play of light and dark? That’s the realm in which artists dwell, dissociating themselves from phenomena and their symbolic names given to them.

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