I created this painting using digital techniques, based on a self-made photograph I took at night on a deserted bridge. The image shows a figure in a long mackintosh walking alone across the illuminated bridge. The warm glow of the streetlights cast long shadows and reflections on the wet road surface, while the rest of the city remains shrouded in silence and darkness.
The work plays with contrasts: the soft, almost intimate light versus the cool depth of night; the human presence versus the massive, industrial structure of the bridge. This contrast evokes a sense of alienation, but also of contemplative calm.
The style is inspired by the work of Edward Hopper, which often focuses on the loneliness of modern man and the melancholy of urban environments. Yet this is not a direct imitation, but a personal translation in which digital painting techniques enhance the atmosphere and give reality a slightly dreamy quality.
With this work, I want to take the viewer into that quiet moment, when the world seems to fall silent and only the rhythm of footsteps and the soft glow of lamps remain.
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…