Creating The Widow of Aleppo (2019)

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/the-widow-of-aleppo-2019/
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After Rembrandt’s

Drawing often is called the primary process and I like it so much, brimming over with an ocean of ideas, that I forget about transfering those ideas to the secondary stage: the canvas. There always is something to dust off and in 2017 I used ‘Nude – 03-09-15’ to work out a bigger theme, called ‘The Widow of Aleppo – 18-05-17’, after Rembrandt's painting Jeremiah lamenting Jerusalem's destruction.

Syria

Since the war in Syria sort of came to an end but the people still suffer, I found it appropiate to do this anew but then in oil. Unfortunately more paintings will be needed to question these themes since war, deprevation, pain and suffering seem to last forever. At the time of reediting this story (January 2021) for the sake of SEO, Syria is suffering still. Assad keeps on holding the country in his grizzly grasp.

Tonally Balanced

I focused on the strong values in the bodily region while keeping the tonal bandwith in the upper right corner small, thus balancing out between strong tonality and the stronger color saturation to the upper right. True artist know that the primary attention always is drawn to where the bandwidth in tonal variation is the furtherst. Color only plays a relative part in the most litteral sense of the word. It is the realm of feelings and expression from the point of view of the artist. Tonality prevails in my eyes though.

Oil on linen (60 x 80 x 2 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers