Painter and teacher, born in Paisley, Renfrewshire. Sivell left school at 14 and worked as a Clydeside shipyard apprentice engineer. After two years in North America he attended evening classes at Glasgow School of Art. World War I saw him serving as a ship’s engineer, but afterwards Sivell determined to work as an artist full-time, after studying in Paris and Florence. From 1940–55 he was head of drawing and painting at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, then returned to Kirkcudbright, where he had painted before World War II.