Mystical Experience or Is It?

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Bergen – 03-02-26’ is about a mystical experience I had or is it? Once upon a time I found myself in the woods around Bergen. The entrance is on the other side of the road, across from Museum Kranenburgh. It must have been the same walk through that forest, searching for Het Oude Hof, that I later drew.

Two White Witches?

There they stood, two women clad in white, perfectly lined up in the forest with their right arm raised. Perhaps you know that feeling that washes over you the moment you encounter something peculiar yet incomprehensible. It only lasts for a second, then you have processed the scenery and come up wit the right interpretation. In that very second I had this image of two white witches in my mind. A bit similar to the one I had doing Mother Nature – 22-01-21. Isn’t that a fearsome thing to behold: two women performing rituals in a leafy forest? Unfortunately — or, to my relief, as it turned out — they were merely taking a selfie.

Food for Thought

Oh my goodness — what first appeared fearsome transformed in an instant into something completely mundane. Then came the immediate rejection of something despicable. Feeling one with nature, I almost judged those influencer‑like women right after the initial fear. Then came the shame, because who was I to judge them? No wider context did I know. Those women might have been on a long‑awaited reunion, capturing their commemorable trip. Akward how this judging system of the ego is put to work. Could it offer food for thought for your own experiences you have in daily life, seeing things you don’t understand?

Valley of the Philosophers

For this drawing’s execution, I chose a specific style to capture those emotions. Then my drawing ‘Valley of the Philosophers – 20-10-15 (Filosofendal)’ came to mind. I always liked that one because of its strong and bold expressionist forms. The sunbeams I erased back later in order to create more badly needed gloom.

Pitt Graphite Matt pencil (Faber-Castell, 14B) drawing on Talens Bristol paper (21 x 29,7 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

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