Creating Neo Deco – 15-10-25

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/neo-deco-15-10-25/
Print: https://corneakkers.com/print-neo-deco-15-10-25/
Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-neo-deco-15-10-25/

Typical Cubist

This oil painting ‘Neo Deco – 15-10-25’ is an elaboration of a drawing in my previous Roundism style. A typical cubist piece work of art. Something I was really into short of a decade ago. Well, that fact didn’t really change but I just moved further. Taking sidesteps to surrealism, painting my grand pieces and doing some impressionist drawings and pastels now and then. In the end I found the phrase ‘Neo Deco’ more fitting than ‘Roundism’ which was meant as a joke name. Not least because straight planes reentered my works so not everything is only roundish anymore. It’s the contrast between round and straight I crave nowadays.

Color Drives Me Crazy!

After Neo Deco – 27-08-25 I found myself a bit in a jam. That painting was satisfying to make because of my quest to harmonize complex color relations. However, also quite exhausting and bothersome. Often I quickly get the tones and composition right because the preliminary work has been done in a preparatory drawing. But then I easily can choke on colors. Sometimes they are too much in quantity or screaming. Then you try to correct that but suddenly turn a too merky. This can drive an artist like me mad. So not this time for me. This time I wanted to keep the color scheme simple, yet profound. Straight to the point!

Pretty in Pink

As always the Universe comes to one’s aid when needed the most. One of my students was painting a blue woman on a pink background. Immediately I saw the potential for my own painting I was about to start. I also remembered my oil ‘Neo Deco – 10-08-23’ I executed in blue with a tad of pink. Why not reverse this and use a lot of pink for a change? So it came to be. More blue was needed though even though the pink stayed the dominant. Last, I thought some touches of green as accents would top it off. The goal was to offer the viewer the most hefty colorful experience. Especially meant for dark winter months when everything indoors will turn greyish blue. The pink already plays it magic in my studio, standing on the easle next to me. It has become ‘the pink one’ in my oevre.

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