Not the Tour de France
A couple of weeks ago I came across the Tour of Rijswijk. I was on my way to Delft, residence of Joannes Vermeer. In front of Herberg Vlietzigt they passed me by in a flash. So I tried to capture that moment. That could be best described by tranquillity at the waterfront of the river Vliet and velocity passing through. Unfortunately, also Vlietzigt went in a flash, due to the Corona crisis. I hope they will venture a restart. May the virus disappear in a flash as well.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
I made the pictures of course and after having returned home I thought of a way to depict what I saw. I never did bikes before, except in my childhood. There was this first thought that came to mind. Looking at the harvest of images it did not represent what I actually saw. This jumping jack flash of images made a whole different impression on me. If a picture could make a sound in this particular case it would be ‘whiz’. Moreover, it made me wonder what fun it is for Tour de France fans to sit down all afternoon and see your heroes pass by in a flash. Perhaps the commercial caravan in advance with all the goodies distributed?
Mixed Bag of Styles
After my graphite pencil drawing ‘The Return of the Dutch Elephants @ Gouda – 12-07-17’ I was in a surrealistic mood. On the other hand I needed some realism to contrast the rather surreal feel of the bikes flashing by. In this respect one could call it surreal impressionism. My feelings with regard to the flashy moment are best expressed by it. There is only one true surrealistic element in the drawing though, to be found in the sky.
Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Strathmore Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm - A4 format)
Artist: Corné Akkers
