by Andrea Fedder | Aug 14, 2019
This artwork is only available from the Two Dam Sustainable Eco Accommodation
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: artist’s own from natural surroundings
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
The new styles that emerge from the tip of my brush feel like they fall out spontaneously as if from no-where.
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But they’re spilling from somewhere. From the place within, that becomes clearer and clearer with every day on what it is I want to make of this life.
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What felt a few months ago like a watery escape into abstraction seems now to be emerging as my hand (or maybe my heart’s) way of painting selective focus.
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I will tell you – It’s all very exciting. Some days this rollercoaster makes me want to puke, and other days the view from on top is something else!
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This miniature is part of a future collaboration with @two_dam_sustainable
by Andrea Fedder | Aug 13, 2019
This artwork is only available from the Two Dam Sustainable Eco Accommodation
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: artist’s own from natural surroundings
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
I’ve returned to my little studio, newly inspired. My last three days were spent on the beautiful trout farm of @two_dam_sustainable, just outside Montagu. Yes, they farm rainbow trout in a semi-arid region of the Western Cape and yes they are 100% off-grid and fully sustainable. Cool, hey?
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While all their operations are beyond awesome in and of themselves, my walks through the rocky, mountainous landscape got me thinking about sustainable creation in nature and in art.
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Ordinarily, you’d equate a lush jungle with abundance and diversity. Or in creative terms, the artist already skilled with a great many techniques, financial backing and a fully kitted studio would be primed for creativity – that old excuse we (I’ve done it myself) often use “I can only be really creative when I have…”
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But this semi-desert landscape, still teeming with fynbos, renosterveld fauna and karoo-esque diversity filled me with a renewed reminder that you CAN create abundantly IF you create from where you are now, with what you have available now. .
Not trying to be anything other than what your environment and current conditions permit IS how you create from your sustainable energy source. .
And, like these incredible plants with their mind-blowing, beautiful geometry and structure will show you – doing exactly that is HOW you will discover your unique style, innate to only you.
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Check out their site at www.twodam.co.za and the Kingfisher cottage if off-grid living and grounding getaways are calling your wild heart.
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This painting is not for sale yet as it will soon form part of a very exciting collaboration with the magic folks of Two Dam Sustainable. 👏
by Andrea Fedder | Jul 12, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Have you heard of Glennon Doyle? I adore her. I keep her and Cheryl Strayed and Liz Gilbert and Brene Brown all squished up next to each other in a chamber in my heart (because its the chamber of all things magic, brave, vulnerable, wild and warrior-like 😉).
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Invariably I find when I need the words of one of them, I soak up the wisdom of all three.
I wanted to share this, by Glennon, with you today.
“You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this Earth.”
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🙏
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own
by Andrea Fedder | Jul 10, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Before I was an almost full-time painter, I was a writer. Before that, I was a sculptor. It’s was a part of my life I didn’t fully understand the unfolding of at the time, but now looking back, I see it as a period of emotional tuition for the creative soul. I was fortunate enough to learn an immense amount from Carrol Boyes herself during my years as a prototype restoration artist and designer with @carrolboyesofficial.
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One thing Carrol always said to me was to ‘have the courage of your convictions’. Those words have never left me. They’re now etched into the guide book of my heart. Alone they sit on a page that I turn to frequently when in doubt, only to realise there was no real doubt to begin with.
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Another fragment that never left me after I left CBFA was the desire to sculpt, to create dimension. I tried doing it as a writer too – always shaping a deeper narrative. And now – immersed fully in the world of paint, the little sculptor inside is knocking at the door again. In the last few weeks, I’ve found myself drawn to a sort of texture painting. Today it came out in the impasto petals of this aloe.
And it made me realise the versions of ourselves we were in our younger lives never truly leave. Instead, I think that’s our formative versions firing arrows way into our future to nudge us toward who we want to be at our deepest level.
So, they’re really more like boomerangs then hey?
I’d love to know if any part of your younger self is making a reappearance in what you do or want to do now with your life.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own
by Andrea Fedder | May 3, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
“A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really…”Do the stars gaze back?” Now, that’s a question.”
-Neil Gaiman, Stardust
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own and common licence reference
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