ABOUT

Portrait painter, posing inside her studio, surrounded by colorful abstract paintings on the wall behind her.

Observing and reflecting on her surroundings, Claire Sevaux’ expressive and strongly pigmented oil paintings capture psychological scenes, a stolen moment, a pulse of life. She is of French and British nationality, lives and works in Paris and trained as an architect in New York City.

Her paintings articulate architectural elements, most often sketched in public spaces - gardens, the underground, swimming pools and museums - and figures who seem as much captured in the moment as drawn from her imagination. Her practice is rooted in her dual architectural and artistic practice.

The scenes layer different strata of reflection and representation, drawing from everday life and superimposing her appropriation of major works from the history of art. Some city paintings convey the fragmentary reality of our perceptions, there is solitude, speed, memory all at once. 

SHOWS

Open Studio, May 2026

Jackson’s Art Prize 2026 Competition: selected in the extended long list  

Area gallery Paris: Group exhibition on the theme of Idioms. March 2025

Mairie du 6ème. Paris: group exhibitions with ArTchipel collective. December-January 2024

Hotel de L’Industrie, Paris: group exhibition with ArTchipel collective. November 2023

SEVAUX ARCHITECTURE

ARB Registered Architect from 2000 to 2015. UK

Registered architect:  Ordre des Architectes, Id France 2013-2022

Founded in 2000, the architectural firm Sevaux Architecture, first established in London and later in Paris, specializes in high end residential architecture and interior design. The projects consist in full renovation and extensions of town houses, apartments and holiday homes.

The bespoke design of the spaces and joinery, along with the development of rhythms, colours, materials, and textures, all contribute to the personality and emotion of the place.  The Sevaux Architecture style is rigorous, understated, and welcoming. 

EDUCATION

December 1999.     Architectural Association School of Architecture London : Part3 professional practice license.

1992- 96.                Diane de Valou Studio:  Academic drawing and painting techniques. Paris    

1989 – 92.              Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, NY: Master in Architecture   

1984 – 88.              Barnard College, Columbia University, NY: Bachelor of Arts, major: Architecture