When we picture the California dream, the mind drifts to palm trees swaying in the breeze, long highway drives, cinematic coastlines, Hollywood shimmer, and endless Pacific blues.
French artist Thierry Lefort captures that vision with nostalgic precision in his new collection, California Blue. On view at The Georgian Hotel’s in-house gallery, Gallery 33 in Santa Monica, the series of oil-on-canvas works distills the essence of California living through Lefort’s unique painterly lens.
The collection reveals Lefort’s exclusive new pigment—Bleu Californien Lefort—created for the historic French paint house LeFranc Bourgeois. Befittingly, the hue matches The Georgian’s iconic oceanfront façade, tying 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 and abstraction to depict a woman sunbathing poolside beneath a sweeping navy hat—a scene drawn not from fantasy, but from the artist’s own Los Angeles home studio. (That canvas, if you’re wondering, is priced at $19,500.)
Naturally, The Georgian itself plays muse. Several works showcase its Art Deco exterior—sky blue walls framed in gold trim—standing proudly along Ocean Avenue as both landmark and artwork.
Lefort’s influences span Chinese calligraphy to Cézanne, yet his California work focuses less on faithful depiction than on capturing light, geometry, and sensation. His famed Blue Series documents Los Angeles skies and the subtle poetry of the city’s everyday rhythm, echoing his transformative journey a decade ago.
On view at Gallery 33 through September 17, California Blue is a vivid reminder of why the West Coast continues to enchant—not just for its landscapes, but for the ineffable moods it inspires. As Lefort himself puts it: “The topic doesn’t matter. To paint from nature is not to copy. It’s to realize one’s sensations.”
