Shanghai Through My Eyes 🏮

🎨 New Paintings, New Worlds

I’m currently working on a new pet portrait commission which I cannot wait to share once it’s complete, but alongside commissions, I’ve also been pouring energy into a passion project that feels incredibly personal to me.

I’ve officially started the second piece in my new China inspired series, currently titled “China Through the Eyes of an American” though the name is still evolving just like the paintings themselves. Here is the completed first piece. 

The newest piece features something that perfectly captures the spirit of Shanghai to me. A McDonald’s pop up sitting directly beside Jing’an Temple, one of Shanghai’s most historic Buddhist temples and landmarks. At first glance it feels absurd. Why would a McDonald’s be planted in the front yard of a centuries old temple? But honestly, that contrast is exactly what I love so much about China.

 🏙️ Ancient Meets Hyper Modern

Shanghai constantly feels like two worlds existing at once. My metro stop was actually located directly beneath Jing’an Temple. I would enter through one of the city’s gigantic malls, ride an escalator deep underground, walk beneath the temple walls, and suddenly find myself entering the metro station below it all. Somehow, this felt completely normal there.

Last year when Chandler visited China with me, he joked that Shake Shack seemed to have a monopoly on historic landmarks because every teahouse, pagoda, temple, or cultural site somehow had a Shake Shack nearby. Honestly, he wasn’t wrong.

But that balance between old and new is what makes the city feel so alive to me.

You’ll see aunties dancing together in parks every evening in perfect unison while delivery drivers scoot by and now, delivery drones buzz overhead. You’ll pass alleyways where locals still play mahjong at folding tables, drape laundry from their windows, and gather outside with cigarettes and baijiu in hand, all while being surrounded by glowing skyscrapers and some of the most futuristic architecture imaginable.

🥠 Looking Closer

What I’m trying to capture in this series is the feeling of looking beyond Shanghai’s skyline. From far away, the city appears ultra modern, polished, and almost futuristic. But when you slow down and look closer, the older rhythms of life are still deeply present and flourishing.

That coexistence is beautiful to me.

China never felt like a place abandoning its culture in favor of modernization. Instead, it felt like culture adapting, surviving, and weaving itself directly into the future. That tension between neon lights and historic alleyways, between temples and fast food chains, between tradition and hyper modernity is exactly what I want these paintings to hold.

With love and color,

Rosalie