Love or Run?
Mother Nature holds many secrets but let me sketch you the following. All of a sudden you spot a naked woman on her own in the middle of a forest. Would you be attracted to her or would you run away screaming? Last year I saw the movie The Witch (2015) which was one of the inspirational sources to start this painting. I have put beautiful women in darker settings before like in my last Frida Kahlo painting. In this particular case I realized the attraction of a nude totally depends on the atmosphere, place and timing. At least it gives rise to mixed emotions and then some more.

Non-Romantic Art
In the past I have brought up so-called ‘romantic art’ in general and my discomfort with it. As such I planned this painting to be the opposite of romantic art. Therefor the beauty of this nude is compensated with things less obvious to the eye. I hope they will reach the spectator eventually. The model by the way is my dear friend Julia Filament, immortalized by art photographer Marco de Waal. I thank them for their beautiful reference picture. It shows a feel that stretches beyond snappy romantic shots you see so often on social media.

Positive Note
So I had the dark stuff, added animals to the scene, created mixed emotions, what else / next? It so happened I was listening to George Benson’s version of all time classic Nature Boy in the process of painting. It grew on me that the theme, after my initial darker thoughts, had to land on a positive note. Nature Boy became Mother Nature, stark naked. If you look very closely you can discover how fauna can turn into flora naturally. Such a discovery is only reserved for those who do not run away screaming but keep on looking.


Mother Nature – 22-01-21

In November 2018 I started this project after a prestudy in graphite ‘An archeological memory of Bettie Page – 13-11-18’. Obviously the canvas size of this painting is bigger than the original drawing. Therefor the balance between main theme (camel, statue and stele) and the negative space around it should show more coherence. It just felt not right to leave a lot of space while main theme was to be portrayed so lavisly.

I always have been an admirer or Jan van Eyck’s ‘The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’. That is the main reason to add an abundancy of details in this one as well. See if I can match the quality of old master’s work.

In general I could state that in this painting i tried to employ all my knowledge and techniques on a level of creating art. Jan van Eyck could have stated: “Als Ich Can”.

For some time I hesitated to put down explanatory remarks as there is nothing worse than explaining a good joke. However I put in so many details making sense only to me as an artist as the story grew inside my mind. Hence a necessary explanation prevails over the risk of not being understood by anyone.


The Restoration of Bettie Page – 01-04-20

Introduction

The first thing that comes to mind is that a couple of years ago Frida Kahlo by means of a nude photo caught my eyes. I guess she did a lot of experimenting in the roaring 1920s / 1930s and her body position intrigued me once more: reclining and amidst two cats but completely demanding the camera in a relaxed way though.

A Drawing First

I did a lot of thinking what to do in the painting compared to the drawing ‘Sans titre – 11-10-18’ I made earlier. Its scale is much bigger so one can show more but what story to tell? A biopic or more of a personal opinion on her? My students I often tell about her: that an artist can be successful employing great imagination without an abundance of refined techniques. The first is necessary, the latter not sufficient on its own.

Communism and Mexicanidad

Reading about her love for stalinism and supporting the ‘Mexicanidad’ I must say that, if those brows only look commanding, her appetite for communism and The Aztecs certainly did make me frown. To me her and Rivera’s way of looking at the world seems all too much salon socialism to me. Never did I see such a lush place like the Casa Azul in Mexico City and I never saw a communist labourer owning such a place. Those Aztecs, weren’t they warmongers, thirsting for blood like all stalinists?

Poor Choices

I came to the conclusion that some of her appetites were poorly chosen, not in the last place her love for Diego Rivera and she might be right in stating that the second tragic accident was meeting him, next to the bus accident.

Great Art

Nevertheless did  she make great art in spite of her curious preferences and severe handicaps. Although intriguing enough to paint I hope I added a painting worth to see after so many paintings already made.

My Cat Furia

Last but not least I found out she was fond of animals and that, in my eyes, certainly flips the balance in her favor. Strangely the cat was reclining in the exact same position as my drawing of my own cat Furia I made in 2016. Moreover I could not find a better place for Furia, deceased in 2016, than this final resting place next to Frida. Therefor she is well taken care after in the drawing, on the panel and in the afterlife I think.


Frida Kahlo (2020) 

Abstracting in Oil

After the success of my initial drawing I decided to dissect Geesje Kwak geometrically even further. Surely it is an ode to abstraction in Japanese art in the first place. After kicking off the painting I came to realize it had to serve another goal as well. That was to pass the abstract as realistic. Even though the painting oozes out realism it is more abstract that it lets on. Do you agree?

Old Master Allure

One thing led to another. The rigid plains reminded me to the stiff look of portraits made by the Flemish Primitives a bit. However, the latter smoothed out plains and painted then round. Nevertheless I wanted to obtain the allure of an old master even though I do not like that qualification much. It always sounds a bit quaint to me. I only relate to old masters because of my love for refined techniques and feel for subtle and lush textures. My contribution would be to put everything I like in the mix. So it came to be that aspects of cubism, impressionism, realism and even surrealism got married in this oil.

A Fetish for Satin?

When I take on a new project I am brimming over with ideas through the process of association soon enough. Obviously many of them are inspired by many artists before me like Gabriël Metsu. At the Mauritshuis in the exhibition ‘Dutch Masters from British Country Houses’ I saw a couple of his paintings. I must admit I am a little bit jealous of his satin treatment. I happen to have a series of interference paints by Williamsburg. Not that I have employed them often, certainly now was the time to do so. Time for some serious bling-bling and do my part in satin depictions.

Enter Vermeer

Talking about inspirational sources the carpet also pays tribute to Johannes Vermeer’s depiction of tapestry, such as in ‘A Girl Asleep’. When I studied different carpets I noticed there are hairy ones and ones that look square knotted. A perfect reason to exaggerate the knots a bit in order to connect with the slight cubistic styling. Consequently the carpet resembles one from the Teyler Museum more than Vermeer’s carpet. I was there because of the Constable exhibition. I kept tapestry rugged in order to have it contrast with the fine kimono embroidery. The unsaturated brown English and Venetian reds contrast the more saturated colors in the robe. By the way the room in the back was modeled after Vermeer’s aforementioned art work. One of my favorites.

To Embroider an Oil

The suggestion of stitched blossom patterns came late in the game. One evening I saw a video of an exhibition of all of Breitner’s Kimono girls at Museum Twenthe. M presumtion of a kimono appearance was all wrong! Perhaps modern kimono motifs are painted but in Breitner’s days they would have been expensive by the elaborate embroidery. That was a set back for me because I wanted to get it absolutely right. I had to experiment with thickening paints in order to suggest stitched threads. They represent an abstraction in itself, creating the illusion of a single petal when stacked in threads. So even though the painting looks realistic there is abstraction in large and small objects. Maybe a single thread is a single Planck length in this work even though combined they gifted the kimono its opulent look. 

Enter the Craft

On the toilet reading an article about Jeff Koons I realized I cannot relate to contemporary art much. I am a craftsman and like techniques, maybe even a modern pre-raphaelite. However, I also like the idea incorporated in the work of art. Why not putting the stress on combining them both in modern art once again like modernists did? Another thing that bothers me is it seems on social media like Instagram it is all about bling bling nowadays. Let’s bring back that one to art once again. Not the kitsch type but artistically well-balanced. I hope people will appreciate the effort put into a true work of art. Perhaps duck tape and bananas will wear away soon enough.


Geesje Kwak (2021)

Last Thursday it was time for my regular model to sit for me in my studio. I keep a clean blanket for her she can sit on. Since she is small and the blanket rather big from a negative space point of view, I decided to put the focus on the many colours white surfaces can show in the folds, highlights and shadow parts. White is a funny colour in this respect. I tried to match her figure to the colours used in the ‘white’ parts in order to create harmony. I think the result is some kind of impressionism with a clairobscur edge to it.

Model session – 17-01-19

Lily Elsie
This drawing depicts Lily Elsie, Edwardian actress and singer. For obvious reasonsI liked the hair volume, its curls and plains. How much work was put into hairdos back then? Probably there were women who could have their hair fondled endlessly and many who had to work very hard. Anyway, more reason to extend the series ‘sans titre’ once more. It started with ‘Louise Brooks – 05-05-14’ although I did not called the series as such initially. After the first one I thought to called it ‘sans titre’ because I did not want people to compare the resemblance of the portrait to the portrayed. It was about my cubism style in the first place. In fact it is some kind of mixture of cubism and my personal style roundism.

Composition
In the compositionary stage I started, like always, dividing space into plains. All of a sudden I came to the idea to counterbalance straight linear structures with softer roundish blurs. Hence her fine features still would be captured while abstract essence will remain the dominant factor. Such is strengthened by the diagonal blocks next to her head. They conveniently break up an abundance of negative space that would be too much. Such are challenges put to the artist. If the portrait’s dimenions are too big then it looks rather canned. In the ‘ideal’ situation the portrait is granted the right to ‘breathe’ and communicate with the negative space. The consequence then is to do something with it. Leaving it untouched always looks daft too me and a portrait can look forelorn. You see, there are many problems artists have to face, not being evident to the untrained eye.


Sans titre – 08-08-19

The Revelation of Bettie Page (2018)

In this painting I tried to work out some grand themes: sex and religion. There is nothing more to say about the ‘what’. About the ‘how’ I would like to mention Johannes Itten who spoke on balance in all sorts of contrasts so eloquently. I tried to balance the big themes and the details just like Jan van Eyck did in his famous painting ‘Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’. I always was fascinated by its mechanisms: the main theme of the Madonna worshipped by Rolin is the painting 1.0. For spectators who want to see more there is the painting 2.0: a landscape and a city full of activity but it does not interfere with the 1.0. This is what I wanted for my painting as well and I hope it it will serve as an hommage to the arts and crafts of the old masters in these days of artistic confusion all around us.

Oil on wood panel (85 x 120 x 0.9 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers


The Revelation of Bettie Page (2018)

Tree in Bloom

When I returned to my car from my trip to Kethel, Schiedam, Netherlands, I saw this beautiful tree in bloom. Sometimes you look for grand things and the little all of a sudden pop into your eyes when least expected. The actual tree was in no interesting area but the very shape struck me by lightning. I took a picture and decided to do it only now (in summer). Live sketching can be overrated. It so happened that I do not have some pencils, paper and a camping chair at hand. Furthermore, I regularly see so many motifs that I cannot draw all at the very spot. From the moment I took this picture I planned to do this anyway, live or not.

Encapsulated

The last time I visited this beautiful little village was in Spring when I drew my first graphite pencil drawing ‘Kethel – 22-04-19’. Unfortunately Kethel has been completely surrounded by apartment buildings. The crazy thing is that first I could not find it at all. I had to climb the roof of the local supermarket in order to spot the top of its bell tower. Then I saw it was completely encapsulated by modern architecture. The village has managed to keep its original character though. Now looks like an open-air museum that is cherished like a dear gem.

Roundism

I tried to capture the flow of the flowering tree and of course in my roundish style. I thought of a couple of recent landscapes I did in that style. Beek – 11-06-19 was the last. Finally I feel this one hits the right spot. Is more profoundly roundism and it expresses exactly what I tried to convey. That was a rhythym of broken curves, thick and thin. Lucky for me someone else catched my drift so I sold it quickly.


Kethel – 13-07-19

The green eyed girl (2017) (sold)

A commission for a classic portrait. The young girl, age 3, has beautiful green eyes (hence the title) and was very animated during the sessions, which is fun to watch but difficult to work with as an artist. So I had to take a lot of reference pictures in order to paint her in my studio.

Oil on wood panel (50 x 60 x 0.9 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers


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Corné Akkers