About Adele

Adele Riley is a British contemporary land and seascape artist working primarily in acrylic and acrylic inks. Her artistic process usually begins with a loose idea of what she wants to create. She strives to capture the emotional content of the subject, letting the inks create a type of chaos by doing what they naturally want to do. 'This is an exciting part of the process,' says Adele, 'As it always reveals something magical, letting me know what I should do or how I should react next.'

Adele is fascinated by light and colour, believing people connect to colour just as much as to the subject matter. People are drawn to different energies in different colours, and she loves to play with this theory in her work.

She often starts her paintings 'plein air', sometimes in local forests or on the beaches of Cornwall and Devon, but her passion is to paint intuitively, recalling the light, atmosphere, sounds and feel of a scene. 'My aim is to capture the essence of a place rather than produce a literal interpretation. I want to create a personal and emotional narrative between my work and the viewer.'

'With light, there is always colour. I constantly chase light, it's all-consuming. I paint quickly, it's the only way I can paint an honest painting, nature and light are so transient that it has to be quick. I work on as many as 9 pieces simultaneously, enabling me to paint in many layers and washes with fluidity. This helps keep expression and movement and creates a sibling connection due to the palette used between all the paintings. It's the only way I can work.'

Adele trained in Design and Illustration at Epsom School of Art.

She has exhibited in Brick Lane London, Cheltenham, Goodwood, Surrey and The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea.  Her works can be found in galleries in Oxfordshire, Wokingham, Surrey and Gloucestershire. She has been featured in Artist and Illustrator Magazine, Homes and Gardens and Vanity Fair, as well as New Artist and FLUX magazines. In 2021 she took up her first residency at the Cotswold Sculpture Park in Gloucestershire. 

Adele's works are proudly displayed in private collections around the world.