When French artist Louis-Paul Caron arrived in Los Angeles this spring, he wasn’t interested in painting the devastation left behind by the Pacific Palisades wildfire.
Instead, he wanted to preserve what had disappeared. Selected for the prestigious Villa Albertine artist residency and supported by the French government, Caron came to Los Angeles to research the intersection of climate change, ecology and wildfire recovery.
His residency focused on one of Southern California’s most devastating natural disasters, resulting in Pacific Palisades, a collection of 25 oil paintings created from archival Google Street View images of homes that no longer exist.
Working from pre-fire imagery, Caron transformed some of the last visual records of the neighborhood into paintings that explore memory, loss and resilience while asking how communities preserve their identity after catastrophe. “I wanted to make climate change tangible,” Caron said.
“People understand statistics, but they connect with homes. A home is universal. It represents family, memory and everyday life. When those places disappear, the reality of climate change becomes deeply personal.”
Rather than documenting charred landscapes, Caron deliberately painted what existed before the fire. I wasn’t interested in painting destruction,” he said. “I wanted to preserve memory.”
The project began as a research residency through Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, which supports artists and cultural leaders undertaking immersive projects across the United States.
Caron’s residency examined how art can help communities understand and respond to climate change while creating new ways to preserve collective memory.
Now, the project is entering its next phase.
In collaboration with Refik Anadol Studio and Los Angeles’ new Dataland Museum, Caron is developing an immersive installation that blends traditional oil painting with artificial intelligence and environmental sound recordings captured throughout the Pacific Palisades, including birdsong, frogs and the movement of wind through recovering landscapes.
“The paintings are not only about what was lost,” Caron said. “They’re also about what remains across memory, community and hope.”
The addition of natural soundscapes is intentional. “I didn’t want the exhibition to end with destruction,” he said. “I wanted people to leave feeling that life continues. Nature returns. Communities rebuild, there is hope.”
The work has already struck a chord with the community it depicts. After Caron began sharing paintings from the series on Instagram, several Pacific Palisades families recognized their homes and reached out, expressing gratitude and hoping the collection would one day be exhibited in Los Angeles.
“For me, that changed everything,” Caron said. “The project stopped being only about my artistic research. It became something shared with the community.”
Throughout his residency, Caron also met with researchers, artists and recovery organizations, participating in discussions at UCLA and engaging with members of the Pacific Recovery Coalition and the Pacific Palisades Long-Term Recovery Group to better understand the human dimensions of rebuilding after wildfire.
The French government has since awarded additional support for the project’s next chapter, enabling Caron to return to Los Angeles as plans move forward for a public exhibition.
Organizers are exploring partnerships with cultural institutions in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, with hopes of presenting the exhibition in 2027.
For Caron, bringing the exhibition back to Southern California is essential. “The people who lived these memories should be able to experience them,” he said. “This project belongs here.”
As Los Angeles continues rebuilding communities devastated by wildfire, Pacific Palisades offers more than an artistic reflection on disaster. It suggests that recovery is measured not only by homes rebuilt, but by memories preserved.
In a region increasingly confronting the realities of climate change, Caron’s work asks a timely question: How do we remember a place after the place itself has disappeared?
His answer is both timeless and forward-looking through oil paint, artificial intelligence and the enduring stories that survive long after the smoke has cleared.
The installation is not currently accessible in Los Angeles, but it will likely return to a local art gallery in November 2027. People can also view his work on the artist’s website: https://louispaulcaron.com/.
Michelle Edgar is a correspondent with the Southern California News Group.