Thierry Lefort - Hotels Above Par

The collection reveals Lefort’s new exclusive pigment—Bleu Californien Lefort—created for the historic French paint house LeFranc Bourgeois. Fittingly, the hue matches The Georgian’s iconic oceanfront façade, linking the show to its setting with striking synchronicity.

Each canvas captures a facet of the Golden State: Bullit nods to San Francisco with a cinematic street corner; The Blue Stone layers a sunset sky with swirling neons, golden yellows, and peachy oranges; and In Three Stages renders a classic palm-lined boulevard, truck and telephone wires included. In Fahrenheit, Lefort blends realism with abstraction to depict a woman bathing poolside in a navy hat—a scene pulled not from fantasy, but from the artist’s home studio in Los Angeles. 

Naturally, The Georgian itself plays muse. Several works feature its Art Deco exterior—sky-blue walls framed with golden trim—standing proudly along Ocean Avenue as both landmark and artwork.

Lefort’s influences span Chinese calligraphy to Cézanne, but his California work focuses less on faithful depiction than on capturing light, geometry, and sensation. His famed Blue Series documents the Los Angeles sky and the subtle poetry of the city’s daily rhythm, echoing his transformative journey there a decade ago.

On view at Gallery 33 through September 24, California Blue is a vivid reminder of why the West Coast continues to enchant, not only for its landscapes, but for the ineffable moods it inspires. The exhibition even extends to film: Thierry collaborated with director John Gulager on The Stetson, a six-minute short in which his muse strolls through The Georgian, stops before the painting of the same name, and slips into its painted world.

As Lefort himself puts it: “The subject doesn’t matter. Painting from nature isn’t copying. It’s to realize one’s sensations.”