Painting Is the Language Solenn Heussaff Fluently Speaks

In The Unseen Garden, vibrant colors emerge from areas of darkness. Lush foliage and blossoming flowers take up space unapologetically, while others recede into shadow—seen, but not entirely. Although elements burst out of the canvas, it maintains a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. The uncertain takes center stage, gradually revealing its beauty and resilience.

“It was really about reconnecting with oneself. With everything that's happening—and with life forever changing and evolving—it's really important to know how to take a step back, to acknowledge and connect with the way you're feeling, and to be open to new things to come.”

Solenn expresses that, for her, mistakes have led to some of the most beautiful pieces she has created. The same can be said about life.

“If you really want to grow and blossom on your own, you really have to go through these phases, and accept that these things are happening to you.” She then expounds, “We try to cover a certain aspect of our lives because either we’re ashamed or we don't want to show people how we feel, and that covering up stops us from doing things.”

She acknowledges that people might not understand what her work is trying to convey. “How is this about human complexity? It's a vase with flowers,” she lightheartedly illustrates. In response, she invites people to look more closely. Every color adds a sentence to the story, and every stroke a new page.

“If you're looking at the painting, you'll have a different interpretation, but the gist of it is really that life is always shifting, life is always moving, and we really need to just learn to take in from that.”

Into the Unseen Garden was in the works for two years, reflecting her approach to creating with intention. Between shooting television shows and films and being a hands-on parent alongside her husband Nico Bolzico, she deems it important to allot time for painting—a practice as natural for her as speaking.

“Painting is really my way of expressing myself because I'm not communicative. I'm still learning how to do it,” Solenn candidly admits. “Nico’s been teaching me how to get out of my shell in that sense because it really does take off a chip on your shoulder when you're able to communicate. For me, I'm just not good with words, I'm not a writer, I can't be poetic. Sometimes, I'm thinking things that I just don't know how to say.”

And just like expanding your vocabulary of a familiar language, Solenn explores a new technique in this series, dabbling into abstract for the first time. “This was a bit more of an emotional exhibit for me,” Solenn tells Preview. “There's more intensity, and I feel like doing abstract helped me show that.”

Among her remarkable works is Where the Hortensias Sing, a painting inspired by her father who is living with severe dementia. On her art account, she shared that hortensias are his favorite flower. Their blurred figures in the painting reflect “how memory and identity can soften and dissolve over time.”

“Even if he no longer recognizes me as his daughter, he is still here, still present in his own way. And I like to believe that somewhere, among a field of hortensias, I can still find him.”

Using large movements and painting directly with her hands allowed Solenn to connect more deeply with her canvas, bringing her work to life in a unique way and revealing a different version of herself. In her words, “You can tell what type of day I was having based on the strokes.”

As for drawing a line between her artist self and her showbiz self, she believes that one does not add pressure to the other.

“If it doesn't speak to you, it doesn't speak to you. That's the lovely thing about art. It's really subjective, and also, it starts conversations.”

Solenn has witnessed how art serves as a bridge for people to connect. She recalls a story she witnessed firsthand—how strangers can feel a brief moment of deep emotional connection with one another through a painting.

“Nowadays, we're all in our gadgets. I think it's very important to create offline connections with people, whether it's a come-and-go person or a constant. I feel like we're built for that, you know?”

Into the Unseen Garden is on view until August 30, 2026 at Provenance Art Gallery, South Wing, R2 Level, Rockwell Drive, Makati.