Creating Beek - 14-04-25

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/beek-14-04-25/
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Natte Beek

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Beek – 14-04-25’ depicts a slighty cubist interpretation of an eponymous landscape. There’s this house called the ‘Natte Beek’ (‘Wet Rivulet’) which is funny. All rivulets, creeks or waters in general are wet, aren’t they? This actual spot is very well known to locals because it is a striking scenery. When you pass it via the Rijksstraatweg you’ll easily spot it. That’s because it is situated in an open field in the bushy hills of Beek. Many times I have seen it with childish curiosity sitting in a bus towards my grandmother in the Ooij. Especially in winter it looks like a gothic fairytale, looking forelorn in the woods. In summer it looks less threatening when meadows are all green. Spring has arrived and my outdoors sketching inclinations are growing. Therefor I thought it would be a good start using this spot as artistic motif.

Paper Strucure

Quite a while now since I made a last landscape really. My last one of Beek showed the old and the new Bartholomeuskerk in a cubistic approach. This time I had it in me to combine impressionism with cubism. This feeling appeared to exactly match the presupposition I had with regard to this Hahnemühle Bamboo sketch paper. Rather grainy of structure reacting to my pencil made me think of Ingres paper of the same brand. It happened to be that my soft 14B pencil scratched across the paper like a knife cuts through soft butter. Even rubbed out with a stump the structures still looked broken and open. Very likeable indeed I must say even though a bit too grainy without using a stump.

Slightly Cubistic

The goal was to implement cubist styling only subtlely. The treeline in the back for example is drawn more abstractly than it lets on initially. The hedge in front of the house has a split halfway. A deliberate addition from my part according to the principle of singularity. The tree in the front to the left was nothing but fun to draw. Very rewarding and satisfying to erase this dots of blossoms with a electric eraser. Even the little branches in the top are a bit abstracted. However, I think the overall scene looks more impressionistic and that was my very aim.

Pitt Graphite Matt pencil (Faber-Castell, 14B) drawing on Hahnemühle Bamboo Sketch paper (21 x 29,7 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers