Few artists embody the spirit of Sorcery: Contested Realm quite like Séverine Pineaux. Her work seems to hum with its own inner magic, from iconic relics like Philosopher Stone and Ring of Morrigan, to the luminous forest-realms of Broceliande and Bower of Bliss. Each piece feels less like a painting and more like a doorway, inviting you into a world where myth lingers just out of sight.
A Paris-trained illustrator turned painter, Séverine began her career crafting fantasy book covers and illustrations for Dragon Magazine and role-playing publishers before dedicating herself fully to fine art. Today, she lives and works in the forest of Broceliande, a place already steeped in legend. (Whether her illustration of Broceliande is simply the view from her window, unicorns and all, remains unconfirmed…but we know where we’d place our bets.)
“I have been drawing since childhood,” Séverine shares, “and my theme has always been fantasy and wonder. I think it started when I was a little girl in fairy tales and legends; drawing them was a way of making them real.”
Fortunately for all of us, that sense of wonder never left her; it simply evolved, deepening into a vision she continues to share through her works.
“I suppose that if I were to draw a train, I couldn’t help but put a dragon in one of the carriages. In recent years, symbolism has developed in my paintings to enrich the silent narrative of the image. I believe the real world is profoundly fantastic, and representing dreams is my way of painting reality, it’s magical realism.”
Bringing Light to Gothic
In Gothic, releasing December 5, Séverine’s newest painting, Consecrate, feels like a hymn rendered in color; an invocation, quiet but unwavering, against the encroaching shadows of the set. Commissioned with the brief “A landscape where evil has been completely banished by a character,” the piece radiates renewal and a world reborn in light.
“I immediately wanted to use light, to create a ‘glory’ - the sun breaking through clouds,” Severine explains. “I visualized a female figure, not an angel but a priestess, receiving light in one hand and spreading it with the other to heal the earth.”
That instinct transforms the image into more than a single act of purification. It becomes a tableau of restoration, a visual echo of calm after chaos. “I wanted to create an atmosphere of renewed peace, like the sun reappearing after a storm,” Séverine says. “And I also wanted something slightly theatrical, like the finale of an opera.”
This reveals something essential about Severine’s artistic philosophy. Beyond technical mastery, every choice aims to create something resonant, something that transcends the frame. “First, I try to create a form of beauty, a pleasure for the eye through colors and rhythm of shapes, much like music is a pleasure for the ear… Then I hope that the subject depicted will evoke emotion and spark the imagination of the viewer. I like people to make my images their own and for everyone to tell their own stories around them.”
While the results certainly speak for themselves, achieving them is always a journey.
Composing the Sacred
The process behind Consecrate was as intentional as the resulting light appears effortless. Early compositions placed the priestess front and center, an anchor to the scene. “In the preliminary sketch, the character took up more space,” Séverine recalls. “Erik asked me to reduce the size, which gave more room and perspective to the landscape, from the flowers in the foreground to the horizon line.”
With space reclaimed, the land becomes a character of its own. The priestess, draped in white, no longer dominates the land; she communes with it. “I chose ochre and golden tones for the land and bright white for the character to suggest a restored golden age,” Séverine explains. “The halo-like patterns around her accentuate the sacredness, but without religious reference. She is a medium, receiving light from above and redistributing it to the world.”
As the painting evolved, the light itself took on a life of its own. “It was while painting that I developed the white glow surrounding her. It was more effective visually, and I realized she was receiving light from the sky, but that she also came from the earth. My imagination often works faster than my hand.”
You can see that spark, an intuition that arrives before reason catches up, throughout her work in Sorcery.
Crafting the Divine
Every detail in Consecrate carries intention. The gradients of white and gold, achieved entirely through brush and pigment, give the illumination a special warmth. “I’m glad I was able to represent light with color alone,” Séverine says. “It made the image feel more alive.”
Like much of her work, Consecrate draws from both reference and reverie. “I often prepare my images by assembling different photographic elements,” she explains. “The hands come from anatomical documentation, the drapery was inspired by several ancient statues—but most of the image came from imagination.”
That marriage of the studied and the dreamlike is what gives the final piece its ethereal gravity, a scene that feels at once rooted in the physical world and touched by something beyond the everyday.
Into the Realm
Séverine’s art has always lived at the crossroads of myth, nature, and quiet wonder. From the alchemical symbology of her Philosopher’s Stone card to the living forests of Arthurian Legends, her paintings help not only define Sorcery’s aesthetic, but its soul.
With Consecrate, she channels that same sense of awe into a single moment of transcendence.“I hope I managed to create an atmosphere of peace,” she reflects, “and that the image evokes emotion, imagination, and beauty—like a song for the eyes.”
As the release of Gothic approaches on December 5, Consecrate stands as a reminder that even when the realm darkens, its bright magic endures. Light is never truly lost. It only waits to be summoned.
Find more at Séverine Pineaux 's artist page
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