The fourth maker in this series works in colour before anything else. Adele Bevacqua is an abstract expressionist painter based in Brisbane, known for heavily textured pieces built in layers of movement and colour. Spend a morning in her studio and you start to understand why. For Adele, painting isn’t really a visual practice. It’s closer to instinct.
Where it started
Adele’s path to painting wasn’t a straight line. She picked up a brush for the first time at eight, painting alongside her Nanna in Far North Queensland, and then nearly gave it up for good after a high school art teacher failed her in the subject. It took years, and some travel, before she found her way back. Studying fashion design at university put a pencil back in her hand. Then six months living in India during those studies changed everything: she fell for colour itself, and the way it seemed to carry joy through any circumstance. That’s the thread running through every piece she makes today.
A day that starts with washing brushes
Adele’s process has a ritual to it. “I’d start by washing all of my brushes, and then I’d kind of sit down and have a look at the piece I started the day before — what areas are jumping out at me as needing a bit of work, and what sections I want to leave.”
Only then does she start looking outward. “I’ll also look at other artists and look at colourways that I’m liking from other artists.” Then the painting itself takes over. “I’ll paint for a while and kind of just mix colours and see what’s working. Might do some little studies and that type of thing.”
Where the colour comes from
Ask Adele what shapes her palettes and the answer isn’t a single source. “There’s nature, obviously, around me, and then there’s other colourways that artists are using.” But the most interesting influence is the painting itself. “I think on the canvas I get inspired by different sections, and then I might use that colourway in a different part of the painting. The painting evolves itself as I’m going.”
She’s just as likely to be looking backward as sideways. “Not necessarily current artists either — artists from history and that type of thing. Referencing a lot of different things.”
A subconscious kind of balance
For all the intuition in Adele’s process, there’s a discipline underneath it, one she finds hard to put into words. “It’s definitely about balance. I think that’s probably one of the main things. It’s sometimes a subconscious balance. You don’t know why a piece isn’t working, but your eye knows, and it’s really hard to articulate.”
That instinct sharpens with time. “The more that you paint, the more your eye understands the composition of a painting and what makes it good. The balance might be in colours, it might be in texture, or it might be in brushstrokes. You kind of know when it’s done.”
How she knows it’s done
Every maker in this series answers this question differently, and Adele’s is one of patience. “Sometimes I’ll live with a piece and try to decide if it’s done over a period of a week or two. Sometimes you don’t know if it’s done, and you live with it, and you’re like, okay, it’s resolved. Nothing’s jumping out at me.”
But not always. “Sometimes a piece is like — I’ll walk away and be like, absolutely, yes.” And the more she paints, the faster that certainty arrives. “The more I paint, the more it comes to me quicker, knowing if it’s done or not.”
For all the process and technique behind it, what Adele is actually chasing is simple.
“I love creating beautiful paintings that make people feel at home.”
This is what The Makers is about: not the finished painting on a gallery wall, but the washing of brushes, the week spent living with a piece, the eye that knows before the mind can explain why. Adele’s work looks resolved because she never lets it go until it actually is.
You can follow Adele’s work at @adelebevacquaart or see more on her website, adelebevacqua.com. And keep an eye out: more Makers are coming.
Adele is wearing the Charlie Overalls in Natural throughout the shoot. Shop the Charlie Overalls.
The Makers is a joint series between Geneva Vanderzeil and Collective Gen, celebrating the women who make for a living.
