Nijmegen - Priemstraat - 30-01-16

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Curious Combination

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Nijmegen – Priemstraat – 30-01-16’ is a curious combination of cubism and impressionism. Suddenly I got an idea. Why not combine more than one isms from the past into a new style? One that could be described as a kind of atmospheric cubic styled realism. Last drawing of the Protestant church at the Ooij was promising but I knew I could do more.

A Beautiful Old Centre

Out of reach is out of touch. So I don’t live in Nijmegen already for a long time. Consequently I didn’t draw it that much, limiting visits only to my parents. They live in the the south of the city. However, my hometown hosts one of the most beautiful old centres a city can have. That, in spite of a bomb raid during World War II. Beauty, at least in my eyes, also because of the natural elevations. Such can be seen in the dawing, which is the Priemstraat by the way. It runs upwards from the Lage Markt to where the Sint-Stevenskerk is. That’s the one in the back.

Atmospheric Depth to the Max

The ambition I held was to create a maximum of atmospheric depth. Not really into finedetailing it to the max. Some time ago I drew one of the streets in Culemborg. I remember I already skipped a lot of unwanted details such as the rebates of the windows. Without the risk of loosing the resemblance which was key of course. All in all I thing I did a good job altogether. Nevertheless, I wanted to go further this time and only slightly indicate those rebates. The idea was to only show that much so their foreshortened forms would would suggest the ascending street. Of all urban endeavours of late I think this one has turned out mighty fine.

Graphite pencil (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm - A4 format)
Artist: Corné Akkers