An Oil Version Finally

After my initial graphite pencil drawing ‘Roundism (Singularity) – 01-06-17’ I also made a pastel Roundism (Singularity) – 05-06-17. Especially the first I like because it surpassed my initial expectations. Strange how this one never got picked up by my followers or collectors. Perhaps someone will one day. What I mean to say is this: all the things I try to say through my roundism style is right inside. Basically it combines a formalistic point of view on artistic nudity with a deeper meaning or narrative. The latter is about the principles of singularity. Below I will explain more. By the way, this motif is a rare example of three different ways of rendering: in graphite pencil, pastel and oil. Normally pick one or two for a single motif.

Singularity

Singularity is the physical principle of a point in spacetime that cannot be measured. Its density, smallness or gravitational quality seems, touches or is infinity. This is mindboggling for all of us living in spacetime. Everything bound by it has a beginning or an end and can be measured. As explained in previous art statements I am quite fascinated by infinity. It is not even something I can touch during meditation. That is because its essence is not ‘some thing’, let alone that there is an essence. Perhaps absence is a better description, although that word also is something.

How to Depict Infinity

For quite some time now I have been breaking my head over this principle, until some years ago. Suddenly I had some kind of epiphany I had to incorporate it in my works. My task is to unreveal what is hidden for others. I became fascinated with endless sequences of irrational numbers. Obviously the greatest mack of all is the Golden Ratio. My personal contribution to the depiction of this principle I consider to introduce a curve approaching a straight line but never touching it. An infinite small point simply is too futile to draw or paint.

Making a Black Hole

Crafting the composition of this one was dead-easy. The theme and all the forms already were invented by me in two previous works. Alas, a new and bigger problem presented itself soon enough. I came to see that in the upper right section the negative space has become gigantic. That was not a problem on a much smaller A4-sized paper scale. Scaling up to 85 x 120 cm it became obvious that the void was too much of a good thing. That is how I came to the following solution. I associated the void with the famous black hole picture in the news some time ago. It fit in the theme perfectly. After all, a singular point cannot be seen, only the effect of the humongous pull on its environment of stars around it.

Bling-Bling

In my Geesje Kwak painting I experimented with iridescent oil paints and with gold, silver and copper paints by Schmincke. I kind of like it although processing them is a hard thing to do. They are grainy and smoothing out and blending them with other paints is almost impossible. Nevertheless I had it in my mind to come up with a kind of bling-bling painting. I wanted to create one shifting in color and shine moving from the left to the right and back. Just like a mother-of-pearl surface would show. That was 5 months ago because that was when the trouble started for real.

I Want it All

Creating infinity streched out to more than curved lines and a black hole. The only thing I wanted was to have it all. I bet high and worked with the 6 main colors. They are the concise representation of the full spectrum of the light. Needless to say I faced the risk of becoming another Bob Ross. Using more than 5 (Raphael’s law) only will be used by fools or bad amateurs mostly. It felt like working in the highest spectrum of color violence. Iridescent paints tend to show the full spectrum anyway. I was also inspired bt Hubble’s pictures through which we see so many colors in distant galaxies. Obviously they are the result of optical filtering but they are grand nevertheless, almost a celebration of the infinitive. It was a hell of a job to balance out all 6 colors in one another. It went wrong many times.

Saturational Challenges

Speaking of colors I wanted to incorporate another phenomenon the use of color can induce. We speak of saturation in this respect. The heavy use of yellow and orange in the black hole area is very striking but it prevents the use of equally strong colors in the female form. Therefor I acted according to the principle of quality of the hue of color as defined by Joannes Itten. In other words I could use these strong colors because there were less stronger colors in the body. From a quantitative point of view there are more, also darker blues and blacks in the negative space. They serve as a massive counterweight against the saturated yellows and orange. I also remembered Carel Willink, reluctant to use yellow but willing to throw in a lot of blue in his paintings.

Planets and Constellations

By depicting Earth boxed in like a pea I wanted to suggest the contrasting vastness of the Universe around it. However, to try to know and therefor to depict all its phenomena only can lead to singularity as well. The mysterious dark blue sphere between her lower arm and lower back is the illusive 9th planet in our solar system. It symbolizes the search for unknown worlds.

Lessons Learned

All-in all this painting presented a lot of mistakes or should I say I learned a lot? I hope I can offer the spectator more than the shape of things. The shape is the spacetime being of the female form, surrounded or should I say defined by the infinite? Even the completion of this oil is an infinite process. Therefor I didn’t finish the piece. I only could abandon it. It feels like leaving a stepchild behind in the snow.

Click here to read about the sale of a printable to an American collector.

Oil on wood panel (85 x 120 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com