Creating Delft – 19-03-23

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Preparatory Trip

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Delft – 19-03-23’ is based on a trip to that city only yesterday. You see, I was visiting the place with my parents in preparation of our visit to Amsterdam. Sunday the 19th that was, visiting the Rijksmuseum for the big Vermeer exhibition. The Prinsenhof offered a great exhibition on the times of Vermeer in Delft. After the visit to the museum we were passing by the Old Chuch, also called the ‘Old John’. The weather wasn’t particularly nice, yet not so cold anymore. Occasionally there was a reasonable amount of sun though. Suddenly I saw a motif that attracted me. A dark side in the canal, some shadows around the bridge and some branches contrasting the man-made church structures.

Honoring Vermeer

Since I fancy doing landscapes latety why wouldn’t this scenery be a perfect follow-up to the last one? For no particular reason I didn’t do much drawings on Delft yet. However, I love the place and it’s close to where I live. My only one was a surrealist drawing from 2017. Time to straighten this out and do a second one. Besides that, it’s Vermeer’s Year. About time to honor him. Soon weather conditions will improve and trees will be in leaf again. Delft will be so much more fun then.

Four Key Elements

When I come to think of it, I’m always attrackted to four key elements in a drawing. These are: the play of light and darkness, a landmark like a building, vegetation and water reflections. Trees only, especially in leaf and tightly packed, can pretty much amorphous. Buildings only can look a tad liveless. Therefor I like the very interaction between them. They give me repetition in variation and variation in repetition. Reflections in the water is a sort of bonus. Surely, things reflected in water can look mysterious. In a way water serves as a gateway to other dimensions. Can you detect them within yourself?

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