About This Work

Bart van der Leck This graphite pencil drawing ‘Bastet – 15-10-24’ is made in honor of dutch artist Bart van der Leck. Or should I say his famous painting ‘De Kat’? My parents had the poster in our house so I’ve known it all my life. If you want to see it on display please go to the Kröller Muller Museum here in The Netherlands. It’s worth the trip and you get all the Van Gogh paintings as a bonus. There was a direct reason to associate Bart’s painting with the artistic motif at hand. Christian Coigny Christian Coigny is a Swiss photographer who once took a picture of a woman with a cat. The latter is sitting on a central heating system. The position reminded me of Van der Leck’s cubist cat. Hence, they both became the inspirational sources for this particular drawings. However, I changed the composition dramatically; I cropped the picture big time for example. Another thing is that I left out the mug on the table. The central heating the cat is on is left out and is replaced by a plain windowstill. The female posture I heavily abstracted. The only reference to his picture is the way the light falls on both beings. Subtle Tones As to the artistic process finding forms wasn’t too difficult really. The difficulty lies in getting all the sutble tones right. Above all, I wanted to prevent the scenery becoming ‘clumpy’. Instead I took Monet’s vision of atmospheric depth to heart. Therefor I wanted to create the delicate atmosphere around the woman and the cat combined. Both are beautifully affected by the backlight. As such, you could say I strived for cubist impressionism. The Ingres paper with its ribbed structure proved to work in my favor again. It creates open structures that breathe transparency and atmosphere, caused by subtle gradients in shading. What a privilege it is: getting the best out of this peculiar sort of paper. Conclusion: I abstracted forms heavily but kept the right tonality. The light will guide people to the right interpretation. The very essence of my art! Counterbalancing At the end I wasn’t completely satisfied. The atmosphere was there but something was lacking. Therefor I counterbalanced the subtle atmospheric depth in the end with some harsh contour delineations. They are so strong they almost protrude to the back of the paper. These strict lines also emphazise the tension between the woman and the cat’s gaze on her. Strange enough I never was a depictor of emotions between living beings. Occasionally you could say but more of a formalist or surrealist. Completed this one, I would like to do just that in the future more often. Bastet Not the first time though I drew cats. In 2020 I made ‘The Cat – 23-10-20 (Sold)’ which I sold quickly. My ‘Out of Egypt’ series already contain a couple of feline friends representing the goddess ‘Bastet’. Now I found out Bart once was inspired by Egyptian art in Paris it made sense to name this artwork ‘Bastet’ once more. A great modern addition to my Egyptian series. Graphite pencil (Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencil 14B) drawing on Fabriano Ingres paper (21 x 28.2 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers