THE ARTIST

California-born Audrey Kamena founded Les Précieuses to marry her three artistic loves: painting, literature, and sewing. As an adolescent, she was trained in graphite, charcoal, and oil painting by Winnie L. Wong, a classically trained professional artist & portraitist whose work has been shown in galleries internationally. Though sketching and oils taught Audrey the fundamentals of shadow, form, and color, it was watercolor’s dreamy, effervescent quality that ultimately captured her heart.

The beginnings of Les Précieuses emerged during Audrey’s second year as an undergraduate student at Yale University. There, she studies Comparative Literature with a focus in Baroque French, Spanish, and English fairy tales and folklore. It was upon beginning this formal study that she rediscovered her favorite author from her childhood, Madame D’Aulnoy, and the précieuses movement. As a historical seamstress passionate about womenswear and fashion, designing silk scarves was the natural result of her painting, studying, and sewing.

Audrey’s art has been commissioned by Yale University, Bryant University, Victoria Justice, and several fashion shows, among others. Along with Ms. Wong, Audrey counts Ivan Bilibin, Gustave Doré, Eyvind Earle, Thomas Girtin, and John Singer Sargent as some of her most significant artistic influences.

She has lived and worked in New Haven, Connecticut since 2023.