Axel Saffran | Drawings (Color)

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Downward Gaze

Soft pastel on board
39,5 x 39,5 cm custom shadow box frame
(Available)

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While in art school, I was very impressed by everything Wassily Kandinsky had made and written. A reproduction of one of his early abstract paintings adorned the wall of my student room. It took a while before I saw that the title "Die Begegnung", was literal: he had depicted the encounter of two people in a way that portrayed both their physical form, plus what was happening on emotional/rational levels. Somehow, this was one of the most formative experiences I can remember. The painting had lost some of its abstraction, but it also made me realise that even the most purely abstract art always references phenomena that we deal with in everyday life.

Downward Gaze
Soft pastel on board
30 x 30 cm (12”x 12”)

I have framed this work in a custom made box type frame, closed off with Clarity glass. This is the least reflective glass I have ever seen, and its specs claim it blocks UV light by 99%.

For a short close up video, plus the drawing in stages, look on my Instagram

Ballerina

Soft pastel on pastel mat, laminated to panel
31 x 34 cm (12.3"x13.7") panel size
(Available)

Portrait of prima ballerina Olga Smirnova during her time at the Bolshoi Ballet, concentrating during a practice session.

Smirnova is one of more than 300.000 Russians leaving their country immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She said she "couldn't keep it in". For her to be truthful in her artistic expression, she had to speak out against the war. And therefor leave... to the Netherlands, where the Nationale Ballet was very happy to welcome her as their new female lead dancer.

Soft pastel on pastel mat, laminated to panel
31 x 34 cm (12.3"x13.7") panel size
35 x 39 cm (14"x 16") framed
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This piece is fixed and stable for all practical purposes except direct touching.
It is mounted on a lightweight panel and framed in a light wood box frame without glass.

Actress I

Mixed media on pastelmat
22 x 29 cm (9”x 11,5”)
30 x 37 cm framed
(Available)

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Small portrait in soft pastel, pastel pencil and charcoal on hand toned pastel mat.
It is based on a headshot of German actress Louise Befort.

I try to keep my marks fairly minimal and have them express a maximum.

Mark Twain once famously seems to have said: “I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.” This piece is the pictorial result of painstakingly taking that time while drafting my interpretation of this portrait in as few marks as possible.

It is one of my personal favourites.

Acrylic, soft pigment stick and charcoal on pastel mat
30 x 38 cm (12"x 15") frame size (4cm frame width)

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This original drawing comes framed and ready to hang.
It will be shipped without glass.

It is possible to put glass in front of it. If you choose to have that done, I recommend Clarity glass AR99, which works wonders in terms of reflection, and protects against UV light.

Anna With Shade

Pastel and charcoal on paper
39,5 x 31 cm box frame
(Available)

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Renaissance style portrait of Anna, sitting behind a lace curtain, with light patterns adorning her face and shoulders.

This original drawing comes ready to hang, framed in a simple black box frame.

(Also available as archival pigment print in five sizes. See: )

Pastel pencil on black paper
mounted to high density foam core panel
framed in black box frame (no glass)

28 x 36 cm drawing size
31 x 40 cm frame size

If you prefer to have it framed behind glass, I strongly recommend investing in museum glass, which works wonders in terms of reflection, and protects against UV light. The piece will need matting in that case, and will increase in size.

Andromeda

Pastel on pastel mat
80 x 70 cm (28"x 32") framed
(Available)

Andromeda was the human sacrificial lamb / archetypal damsel in distress in a classical narrative of female envy and patriarchal tyranny that is BC and very non-PC.

In less woke times, this rather horrible scene has been depicted many times. I have drawn it in a way that is both minimal and expressive. Here and there I even sacrificed some of the naturalism in order to achieve the right expression, keeping just enough to ground the piece. Both the sea monster coming to get her, and her winged saviour are represented, but I merely implied them, so as not to distract from her and the posture she is enduring.

The relevance of this image today is the fact that even in these enlightened times for some, she still can serve as a patron saint for countless girls worldwide who are sold off as brides, and are generally expected to play second fiddle to males.

Being an Ethiopian princes, she (probably) should have been dark skinned or at least sunburnt, but I chose to stick with Western Art's tradition of portraying protagonists (like Jesus) as White, and made this Andromeda light-skinned.
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The frame shown in the second image is included in the price. I recommend adding matting and Clarity Glass AR92/museum glass, for maximum protection (UV and atmospheric influences) and minimum reflection. In that state, the colours of this pastel drawing will outlast those of any oil painting.

Danae, visited by Zeus

Charcoal and pastel on paper
70 x 100 cm (27,6”x44”)
(in private collection)

Princes Danae in her prison tower, being visited by Zeus, who, disguised as a shower of gold, impregnates her with the future murderer of her father. Her father who had her locked up precisely to prevent this fate -- predicted to him by an oracle -- from ever becoming a reality.

For this depiction of Danae, I made grateful use of Trude Fleischmann's photograph of choreographer, dancer and nudist champion Claire Bauroff, dating from the 1920's. This in itself makes for a much more modern version of the character, if only because of Bauroff's muscular physique. Her body posture and the mere fact that she is upright, also set this rather dynamic scene apart from earlier versions.

For me this piece was fun in the sense that it came together in much the same way as my photo montages fell into place when the time was ripe. And like many of my montages, the (seemingly) ambiguity of this drawing makes it possible for the viewer to approach it from different angles, I suppose.