Adele Renault

Los Angeles, California

Adele Renault grew up in a musical family in the Belgian Ardennes but as a teenager began traveling and living abroad. After graduating from the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels in 2012, Adele co-founded Unruly Gallery with artist Niels Shoe Meulman in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

 From faces of the elderly to a scruffy pigeon to a portrait of someone experiencing homelessness, Adele is fascinated by the inconspicuous beauty of everyday objects and subjects. She paints photo-realistic moments and expressions full of stories and meaning. 

What are common misconceptions about your job?

That it is a hobby not a job. 

People always think or say, "oh it's too great you can live from your painting” meaning: "it's so great you can live from your hobby"

But a job is a job, and as a painter, painting is my job, and obviously I love it and am very grateful I can make a living from my paintings. But it is work. Hard work. And there are some days, you just can't stand painting, or are exhausted or would just wish you would have a simple monkey job for a few days where you don't need to think and can clock in and out. But you keep working, and hard work pays off like in any other job. And I don't believe in artists that "enjoy painting" at all times, that somehow doesn't feel right. Struggles and failures and hard work is all part of it and that's what makes great art. 

How has your work changed over the years?

 I think it evolves organically. You can't force it. Sometimes I wish my art would evolve into more abstract and looseness. But the one thing I become more and more aware of, is that you cannot force it. You cannot wake up one day and decide: I am going to be an abstract painter today. There's always been a red thread in my work, which might not be visible at first glance, but it's the social aspect. Painting is very lonely and can at times be a practice disconnected to the outside/social work. But I am a social being, and always have struggled with the idea of being locked in a studio by myself. Whether its my portraits series, or the pigeons, it's always about being out in the streets, talking to people, and using paintings to create connections with humans I would otherwise not have been connected to. And maybe that's why the transition to abstract might not happen for me - at least not in the near future. Painting murals is for me also a great way to make the practice of painting less isolated and more connected to other beings, during the making and afterwards.