In Love with the City

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Leiden – 27-12-16 (Sold)’ depicts a city where I lived for 11 years. Arriving back in 1988 I immediately fell in love with the city. That is, despite of the boring surroundings outside it. Basically, I’m a forest and hill sort of guy. Coming to Zuid-Holland, Netherlands was a shock to me. I don’t like the flat lands with all the little canal running through it. However, I like those canals in an old town like Leiden. She bears the patina of a great era gone by. Sometimes a little squidgy around the eges. Nevertheless, it’s a darling little place and there are great boat terraces. There you can have a drink on the water overseeing the canal and ancient buildings.

Nieuwe Rijn

The actual place I liked best is the main theme of this drawing. It’s the Nieuwe Rijn and in the back you can see the Visbrug. The two terraces are great and I like them best over Annie’s Verjaardag just on the other side of that bridge. The Koornbrug is where I took the shot from. Possibly one of the most ancient and great looking bridges of The Netherlands. It was the first time I drew the Nieuwe Rijn; I don’t know why that is. The series under the name ‘Leiden’ contain other views on the city. 

Water Reflections

Now I have put that straight I must express my fascination with reflections in water. There are so many canals to be found over there so it’s easy to satisfy this inner urge. The movement of the water is what I put as a central theme in this drawing. Since the water is such a prominent theme I quickly decided to unleash my kind of impressionism to the scenery. This way I get the maximum result without sheer copying a photo which was mine to begin with

Click here to read about the sale of this art work through artfinder.com.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) – A4 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers