Daniel Adel has a particular fascination with drapery that he expresses in his dynamic oil paintings of sculptures wrapped in cloth. Working out of his studio in the village of Lourmarin in Provence, France, Adel creates his fantastical visions of drapery, where the folds of cloth seem to defy gravity as they wrap around classical-shaped busts. The depiction of drapery throughout history has been used to emphasize the contours of the human figure, especially in Greek Art, where it suggested lines of force and indicated the past and future actions of the figures it clings to. Perhaps one of the best known examples is the 2nd century BC Greek marble sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace of Greek goddess Nike (Victory). With this in mind, the inanimate objects of Adel’s paintings seem to come to life, as if they were moving themselves throughout the picture in a perpetual motion. Though Adel renders his subjects with a believable realism that feels natural, his representation of these objects is entirely surrealistic, conveying the sense of action and triumph embodied by those ancient sculptures. Adel once said that his paintings tap into what he is instinctively drawn to and loves to look at, and with each piece, he tries to find a way to transform that into something nobody has seen before. He is currently exhibiting new works at the LA Art Show fair in Los Angeles through January 31st, 2016.
San Francisco based artist 
Like Adams and Eves freshly banished from the Garden of Eden, 