Adele worked for many years as a teacher and lecturer and as an Art Therapist. It is only now, after years of encouraging others, that she is devoting her time and energy to being an artist.

"When you are teaching, you give an awful lot and it is not easy to do your own work at the same time. When I retired I thought I would immediately start painting again but it took a while to get into the mind-set".

Adele is one of five artists based at the Painswick Centre and currently works alongside artists Ange Mullen-Bryan, Sue Cridland, Barbara Swindin and Rupert Aker. Throughout the week and every weekend the centre's doors are open for visitors to pop in and see the artists at work.

Adele enjoys the challenge of using different media and painting a variety of subjects. She works mainly with vibrant colours and texture and strives to paint as directly as possible. The first thing which strikes one about Adele's work is that richness of colour and texture. Exotic blues, reds and golds almost dance on the canvases as if they are playing a musical tune. There is a sense of place and depth as the viewer is drawn in and taken into another world full of meaning, one where dreams become real, a story unfolds and anything can happen.

"I am an intensely visual person although I wasn't aware I was when I was younger. I remember the first time I went into the painting department and the smells of the oils and turps. I just knew I wanted to be there, although I had no idea where it came from. For me painting is about going into a world that is all your own although the colour and excitement is part of it."

Recently, she has focused on a more narrative set of works, based on what was happening in the art world 100 years ago – a time when Russian ballet impresario Diaghilev's company the Ballet Russes premiered the original productions of Stravinsky's Petrouchka and at the same time Picasso and Braque started the Cubist movement.

"Matisse was also starting to produce interesting work, then there was Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group, as well as what was happening in Vienna and the Art Nouveaux movement. There were some very exciting artistic endeavours and pushes at the time and I am working on a series of works to celebrate it. I suppose it is my homage to what was going on a century ago."

Adele has exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibitions, Royal West of England, in France and at numerous art fairs in the UK.

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