Jeffrey Hessing: Landscapes & Cityscapes, from Provence to Shanghai

The artist Jeffrey Hessing ventures out from the sun-drenched shores of the Cote d'Azur and the magnificent landscapes of Provence to paint the great city of Shanghai from 20 floors above its busy streets.

This is not the first time Hessing has painted cityscapes. First there was New York, then Boston, Nice, Monaco. Now he has set his sites on Shanghai. For this artist, a resident of Saint-Paul de Vence and Nice since 1980, is originally from New York C ity. The Big Apple. In his own words:

“Most exhibitions are a year or two in the planning. One day in December 2004 I received an email, shortly after a phone call, then a visit. Six weeks later I was on my way to Shanghai for my first exhibition there. That typifies my impression that anything is possible in Shanghai.

My first impression was of some futuristic fantasy world. I never imagined modern architecture of such daring creativity and variation and in such profusion. It is a city that is burgeoning, blossoming, not merely expanding but exploding.

At the same time Shanghai reveals itself slowly, like a modest woman who, with only temporary success, hides her beauty. I don't pretend to know or understand her. I am courting her, discovering her slowly through painting. Enticing and encouraging her to reveal her charms, her inner beauty.

Paris is a flamboyant city built to be seductive. Rome has a proud beauty and London is demure. Budapest has a melancholy, bitter sweetness. Each major city has its own personality. Each a distinctive energy which is imbedded in and expressed through it's architecture and appearance, but also in it's history, it's culture and people, in it's essence. That is what I see, feel, and paint.

I am from New York. Though I've spent years painting landscape, virtually living outdoors, in the wilderness or in the finest gardens of France, I have an urban core. When I enter a city I begin to resonate with the place. It comes up through the ground, filters through the air. Shanghai vibrates frenetically.

Then there are the small discrete pockets of the old Shanghai. I have never seen the old and new collide with such velocity.

So after a few days in Shanghai and my first opening I thought, “ I have to paint this. ” I went out to buy materials, found a room with a view overlooking the river, and began. There, hour after hour the energy of the city, the boats and barges, buses, cars, carts, bicycles by the hundreds, thousands maybe, rush up at me, into paint and onto canvas. I become like a window, or a mirror , an old one which changes, modifies, distorts.

That's what I do. That's when I'm happiest; with a large canvas in front of me and an exciting city stretching out as far as I can see.”

Jeffery Hessing, born in New York in 1952, has lived and painted in southern France for over twenty-five years. The area's rich history, culture and brilliant landscapes have been the subject of his work. Bold swaths of color and spontaneous brush movement have characterized his paintings over these years. Here we see the artist as both traveler and guide – literally bringing his oils and canvas to new sites – and figuratively bring his viewer to a more imaginative and expressive view of a once familiar place.

After graduating from the State University of New York, Jeffrey studied privately with renowned American artist, Leonard Baskin. He was a resident at several artist colonies in the US before coming to France to attend the Fondation Karolyi in Vence in 1980. He fell in love with the region and made it his home.

Jeffrey has exhibited successfully all over the world, from Monaco, Paris and Switzerland to Japan, Hong Kong, and Boston , New York, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles . Jeffrey's paintings adorn the walls of places such as the Centre Culturel Henri Matisse in Vence, France, to Public Libraries, Universities, Museums and the homes and boardrooms of the CEO's of major international corporations.