This graphite pencil drawing ‘Schiedam – 06-04-26’ shows the city in its realist glory or does it? Well, realism is preserved even though elephants dwell there too. Let me explain. A year back I was visiting the town for a trip to the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. The Adya and Otto exhibition was on and we looked forward to seeing their lovely artworks in real life. His more abstract work is one of my inspirational sources for my own cubist works. Always a treat to visit this museum and when we got out we walked down the Lange Haven again in search for a bite to eat. There I saw this incredible scenery across the water near the Taanbrug. Foreigner surely would call this a typical dutch landscape: a canal, 17th century houses and spritsail barges. I quickly made a photo for rainy days to come.
A Bit of Magic
A year later such a rainy day came indeed. Since my last small series of square-sized cubist nudes I still didn’t find the right occasion to sketch outdoors. Then I remembered this photo and I thought I’d make a shot at it. At least it’s a landscape and perhaps forcefully execute one in graphite causes the weather to improve. After all, it’s spring and we the dutch long to go outside, sitting on terraces and walk in nature. This little project came easy, just a matter of getting the tonal values right. Somehow I didn’t feel like applying my personal cubist style this time. The majority of previous drawings I made in the Schiedam Series were cubistic more or less. However, realism in its pure essence doesn’t say much to me. Never has, never will. Why wouldn’t my dutch elephants decide to visit Schiedam too and so they did!
Graphite pencil (Tombow Zoom 707, 0.5 mm, Pentel 4B) drawing on Talens Bristol paper (29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers
