Shadow becomes a work of art.
Adrien Audry, artist. Sails composed for a place, from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean.
Sails stretched on masts, composed for a single place: a hotel terrace, the courtyard of an estate, the garden of a house. By day they cast a shade that moves with the sun; at night they are lit from within. Everything begins with a drawing by hand; the work is then made and set up at the scale of the place.
Write to Adrien Audry contact@adrienaudry.frProjects
Hôtel de Crillon, Paris
2021
On the roof, a narrow terrace between the chimneys, and Paris as far as the Eiffel Tower. Two grey sails stretched above the tables: they take away the sun and keep the view. You lunch outside, in the shade, without losing any of the sky.
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Royal Champagne, Champillon
2021
The terrace looks out over the slopes and the plain of the Marne. Sand-coloured sails, stretched on white masts, cover the open-air lounges. You sit in the shade, facing the vines, with the whole sky above.
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Hôtel Royal, La Véranda, Évian-les-Bains
2026
A study for the veranda of the Hôtel Royal in Évian. Between the sky over Lake Geneva and the century-old trees of the park, pale sails would cover the historic terrace, embroidered with the hotel’s initials.
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Orient Express, Compass Rose
Mediterranean · 2026
A study for the decks of the Orient Express sailing ships. Around the mast, the sails open like a compass rose; the sun comes through and the shadow turns on the teak as the hours pass.
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Les Battantes, Morzine
2026
A study for the open-air pools at Morzine. Forty-two mills once turned on the Dranse; Les Battantes take up the wheels of those mills, as sails stretched above the pools. From the water, one swims beneath a sky of ink; from the footbridge, the wheels appear again.
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Nonoa, Gulf of Saint-Tropez
2026
A study for a beach club on the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. A single large star-shaped sail with cut-out points, carried by masts like bundles of branches where the light comes on in the evening. Beneath the first drawing, a sentence: “The search for the self-evident”.
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“The sky becomes canvas, shadow becomes art”
“Between day and night, the sails reveal their dual nature – delicate shadow and caressing light”
Hôtel Royal, Évian-les-Bains
2025
Among the olive trees, above Lake Geneva, sand-coloured sails overlap in cut-out layers. By day they give the terraces cool shade. At night a soft light comes from within, and each sail becomes a lantern.
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“Every existing tree becomes a partner in this composition.”
“These drawings do not decorate – they tell a story.”
Coya, Tropicana, Ramatuelle
2025
A study for a beach at Ramatuelle. Terracotta sails stretched between the tamarisks, above a patterned ground; every tree stays where it is and the sails go around it. The shadow settles on the sand like a second pattern.
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“Night reveals another side of the architecture”
“The sails in natural tones converse with the existing multicoloured benches, creating a living chromatic score.”
Augé Colin, Champagne
2025
A study for the garden of a care home in Champagne. Between the flower beds, beige and champagne sails stretched on slender masts would make open-air sitting rooms, and shade to sit outside.
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“The wood dances with the light, sculpting a space where conviviality becomes art.”
“There are places where time seems to slow its course, where beauty becomes a tangible experience.”
Domaine de la Rouillère, Gassin
2024
A study for a wine estate in the hills of Saint-Tropez. Sand-coloured sails stretched on wooden masts, in soft overlapping planes above the terrace; beneath, a counter and stools shaped after the vine stocks, pale seats turned towards the vines. The shadow slides over the dry stone as the day goes by.
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La Jonque
2024
A study for a private terrace. A single large sail, ribbed like a leaf or a junk’s sail, carried by two curved masts; beneath it, the dappled shade of a summer afternoon.
Le 25bis, Leclerc Briant, Épernay
2023
In the cobbled courtyard, between brick and pale shutters, sand-coloured sails stretched above the tables. You take a glass outside, in the shade, in the heart of Épernay.
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Domaines Ott, Provence
2025
Along the ochre wall, a pale sail runs at a slant, stretched between slender masts. Seen from above, the sails draw a star, the estate’s own. By day the shadow crosses the terrace; at night the sail lights up.
See the projectArt
On paper, time is short. In the finished work, it is long.
2026
2026
2026
2026
Furniture
The shade in place, all that remains is to sit down.
About
Every place has a story. I read it, then give it a shadow.
Provence first, a childhood beside a river; then Lake Geneva, at Évian, and the Dranse crossed every day. Water has stayed in the work: a stretched sail moves as water does, and so does the shade beneath it. Twenty years drawing sails for others, over terraces, courtyards and gardens, for hotels and private houses. Then, at the Royal Champagne hotel, above the vines, something changed. Sails stretched between masts; at midday the shade held the whole of lunch, and evening erased it. A pencil drawing had come first, black on white. Since then, drawing has been at the heart of everything, and the work bears a single name.
Each work belongs to a place. It does not come from it: it is already there. The ground, the light, the wind, the trees, the history of the walls: all of it enters the work. One looks for a long time, waits, forces nothing, until the form appears of its own accord. Then it is drawn, and brought to the scale of the place: sails composed for it, stretched between masts that stand on their own. What is elsewhere called a shade sail is here a work of shadow. It moves across the ground as the hours pass. The wind stirs the sails for a moment. At night, a soft light comes from within. In winter the sails come down; the masts remain, like a tree without its leaves. In spring, they return.
The moment when the form appears cannot be summoned. Before it, days of work and searching when nothing comes. Then, without warning, everything falls into place within a few hours, and the drawing holds that moment in a geometry. The paper keeps it; the work, at the scale of the place, makes it last. The sketch and the finished work are one and the same, one quick, the other slow.
The works range from hotels and wine estates to private houses; studies have been drawn for the pools of an open-air swimming stadium and for the decks of great sailing ships. A project begins with a message and a call, then a visit to the place. A drawing follows, and a study that shows the work in its place, by day and by night. Once the drawing is chosen, the sails are made in partner workshops, set up for the warm season, and return each spring.
What twenty years have taught the hand is now passed on to a tool that draws with it, so that the works may grow without the line being lost.
Adrien Audry lives and works in Évian, on Lake Geneva.
Contact
For a work, a place, a question:
Or write directly to contact@adrienaudry.fr
Évian, Lake Geneva.
After your message: a call from Adrien Audry, then a visit to the place and a drawing. Architects, interior and landscape practices: a study on its own can also be commissioned.
Download the portfolio (PDF, 6.9 MB)