Solarized Roundism – 07-03-22

Oily Solarization

A new oil painting based on my graphite pencil drawing ‘Solarized Roundism -26-11 21’. After the previous one ‘Rusalka, Free Floating in Russian Waters – 28-02-22’ I was in for something new. In fact, I always am and that mindset prevents me from repeating the same old same. Now it was time to explore possibilities for transfering my solarized works into oil. That is something I never done before. The medium graphite lends itself very fine to depict all bizarre but beautiful characteristics solarization has to offer.

Earlier Solarized Works

There is a big handicap to start with basically. When we think of solarization Man Ray’s photographs immediately come to mind. Those are done in black and white. I have done some Man Ray inspired works in the past. An example is my pastel drawing ‘Hommage to Man Ray 02 (2012)’ This one is without the Roundism styling though. Another one is my graphite pencil drawing ‘A 4th Tribute to Man Ray – Lee Miller – 03-11-14 (sold)’. That one I styled mildly cubistic but monochrome on the other hand. Ever fascinated as I am by solarisation I thought it was time to carry my own weight this time and invent something new. Maybe a merge of two styles?


Enter Roundism

The drawing of last year I quite like and I was wondering if I could put these partically overlit areas into color. The challenge was to stick to the association with solarisation but also make it typically roundistic. I think I managed to pull it off once again. The solution presented itself almost automatically. It’s about the colors of Ukrainian flag we came to know so well these days. They are a perfect match to the warm ones in the body. As razor lights in the contour delineations of the body they were the contrasts I needed. Needless to say that I thank the Ukrainian people to grant me there trooping colors. May they resist tyrrany and inspire us to realize we can paint what we want because we live in freedom. This makes me feel this painting oozes out some kind of urgency.


Oil on linen (60 x 80 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com