This graphite pencil drawing ‘Reclining Nude – 16-11-14’ depicts my regular model lying down on a couch in her home. Actually it’s the same as included in a later oil called ‘Golden – 18-07-22’. For some time how I had her over at Brugman Art in Voorburg as a posing model for my groups. This proved to be a success and therefore I agreed to do a one-on-one session with her. She’s allergic for cats though and at that time I still had my darling cat Furia living with me. Hence we organized a first session at her home in The Hague. There I came for pictures really so I could work with them at home. At the end of the session I drew the first contours of a pastel that became ‘Reclining Nude – 28-01-15’.
However, this one became the second after a picture I took that session. If you like you can take a look at the first one, a pastel called ‘Reclining Nude – 10-11-14’. It’s my first cubist drawing of her though. Well, not stricktly cubist so-to-speak. In fact, the only thing I did is to divide the scenery into straight planes of light and darkness. At that time I pretty much was into laying hatched strokes only. On the other hand I was searching for this other thing. Something I hadn’t done before. Then I saw I could put the stress on the diagonality. Left leg, her right arm and torso were positioned diagonally. Her left underarm made a perfect ‘Z’ with them. That was the very position I was looking for; a perfect abstract beginning for my ever lasting search for an artistic world to call my own.
Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (29.7 x 42 x 0.1 cm – A3 format)
Artist: Corné Akkers