This painting was created from a self-taken photo I took while walking through Amsterdam. In a narrow street, where old facades meet modern graffiti, I felt the typical energy of the city: raw, creative and quirky. Instead of rendering that place realistically, I chose to translate the atmosphere into a punky painting, with bright, contrasting colours and powerful, impetuous brushstrokes.
The graffiti, crooked houses and shadows on the street combine to form a vivid backdrop in which the mundane and the rebellious merge. By exaggerating the colours and making the shapes vibrate, I wanted to show not only the place as I saw it, but especially as I felt it: a place buzzing with creativity, freedom and a touch of anarchy.
This makes the painting more than a representation of an Amsterdam street scene. It is an ode to underground culture, the people who give colour to the city, and the beauty to be found in the unexpected and the imperfect.
Created by Geert Van Baelen with support from AI.
Geert Van Baelen has been working as a press photographer in Belgium for over 20 years. Besides current affairs, he also finds inspiration for his images in everyday life, landscapes and people... Read more…