The Revelation of Bettie Page (2018) In this painting I tried to work out some grand themes: sex and religion. There is nothing more to say about the ‘what’. About the ‘how’ I would like to mention Johannes Itten who spoke on balance in all sorts of contrasts so eloquently. I tried to balance the big themes and the details just like Jan van Eyck did in his famous painting ‘Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’. I always was fascinated by its mechanisms: the main theme of the Madonna worshipped by Rolin is the painting 1.0. For spectators who want to see more there is the painting 2.0: a landscape and a city full of activity but it does not interfere with the 1.0. This is what I wanted for my painting as well and I hope it it will serve as an hommage to the arts and crafts of the old masters in these days of artistic confusion all around us. Oil on wood panel (85 x 120 x 0.9 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers

The Ravens Quest is a 40x40 inches large original oil painting on canvas of ravens flying high above a Sussex winter landscape intent on a quest. The style is slightly playful, semi abstract with lots of interesting shapes and bright art nouveau type colours. I often walk around in fields between Forest Row, and Hartfield, in Sussex, and there is a large rookery I often pass which fascinates me and inspired this painting. Ravens, crows and birds generally are the background sound many of us hear all the time but often do not register it as we blank it out - as we do traffic noise. However I can't help wondering what these intelligent birds are saying. Another influence to this painting was a story I saw in the news recently about a girl who receives gifts from crows when she feeds them. I am sure there is more to ravens and crows than we so far know and this is why this painting has a slightly mystical, fairy story narrative to it. I don't know what the ravens quest is but I am sure they have one! This painting is dedicated to birds - my life is better for them - and their continuous background chatter and song - I hear the Elbow song 'The Birds' as I look at it :-) Painted is on deep edge canvas with white edges and is ready to hang.

The Promise is a 40x40x1.5 inches large woodland bluebell abstract oil painting on deep edge canvas, white edges, ready to hang. The style is expressionist and abstract and was made using both blending techniques and thick impasto paint to give the impression of the colours and shapes of a forest clearing with bluebells and light through the trees behind them. The colours are muted blues, lilacs, greens and pinks and represent a memory impression of mine of bluebell woods in Sussex in Springtime. As with many of my woodland path and clearing paintings, there is a hint of the possibility of revelation and magic. That is because woodland walks always give me the feeling that magic exists and that I may find exactly what I want just around the next bend. Oil paint has the lovely quality of reflecting different textures and hues as the sun moves around the room. This one is no different and seems to act like a real woodland glade in April as the light changes and even though it is not 'realistic' as such, it nevertheless gives a definite feeling of the beautiful fleeting moment in Spring when bluebells flood the woodlands of England.