Some months a painting stays in the studio. Others, it leaves quietly and comes back changed by the places it has been. This autumn the work has travelled in three directions: onto a screen above the busiest crossroads in the world, onto silk, and to Tokyo.

Each one asked the same question: what does a portrait become once it leaves the frame?

At night in Times Square, among the crowds, the yellow cabs and the endless moving light, a quiet face appeared: pale skin, light hair, a steady gaze, and a clear crystal held close, as if to see the world through it.

Cool, icy blues against the warm noise of the city. I liked that contrast. Times Square is a place built for attention, and this portrait asks only for a moment of stillness. If you crossed Broadway and looked up, thank you for stopping.

Artwork: Chrysalis, 2024, oil painting  ·  On screen: 1 October 2026, all day

In “Jehan Legac: From Canvas to Silk, Art Unfolds Beyond the Frame,” Jonathan Hale writes about a new chapter in my practice: the move from figurative oil painting to original designs on silk.

These scarves are not reproductions of existing paintings. Each design is made for silk, for the way it moves, catches light and rests against the skin. A painting is usually seen from a distance. A scarf is carried, worn and lived with.

The Jehan Legac Shop is now open.
Discover the silk scarves

From 7 to 9 October, a new painting, Vision Within, will be shown at The Holy Art, Shibuya, Tokyo.

It explores identity, perception, culture and human emotion: how we see one another, and how we are shaped by what we are seen to be. Tokyo, where tradition and the future live side by side, felt like the right place to show it for the first time.

If you are in Tokyo this week, it would be a pleasure to welcome you.

Six hearts are hidden somewhere in the atelier, tucked into the paintings and the silk. Find them all, and you might win a Jehan Legac silk scarf.