by Andrea Fedder | Dec 30, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Nearing the end I thought to paint some fireworks as a little pre-emptive colour hooplah for being almost done with this challenge.
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I started painting the great puffs of colour in the sky and just could not get into it.
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“Why is this not working for you, Andrea?” I asked myself. And as quick as lightning another part of me replied – ‘Because fireworks are too removed from nature’. (Yes, the chemical elements used are natural but the way they’re propelled into the sky with gunpowder is human-engineered).
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Hmm. So I painted over it all and started again, tapping into nature’s own colour spectacle. Okay, this sky is a little Willy Wonka but none the less, it flowed, and therein lies the rub for me.
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It’s SO easy to slip back into conventional associations or societally reinforced thinking structures. On the creative path, if you’re not questioning your why for stimulus often enough, you can quickly murky the source fire of your creativity. Of course, it’s fine to do so, but do it because you’ve decided to break your pattern, not because you’ve slipped unawares into the habitualness of life around you.
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(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own
by Andrea Fedder | Dec 28, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Sceneries like this are painted in layers to add depth. While I was adding my final circles around the sun before moving onto the midground trees, I realised the layers of a painting are not unlike the layers of life.
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Each builds onto the next and you can’t go back and redo one no matter how badly you want to.
Often the fact that you might have needed to go back and make a previous layer brighter, or softer or more vivid only becomes clear once you’ve added the next layer on top.
In both cases, I guess the experience to know how richly to saturate these things while you’re in the midst of painting or living them, comes with time.
But regardless of how you’re choosing to live the layers of your present life, kids or no kids, footloose or fancy, settled or nomadic, take an adage from painting and give your life the grace to fluff it up and make some blunders.
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My personal call is – if it feels right for you in the present – you shouldn’t view it as a wrong call down the line.
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I’m relieving future me of any and all rights to judge and berate past me. If the background is too saturated and the trees look wonky when I’m 80 years old and sitting on that rocking chair sipping over salted Bloody Marys then ‘oh well’ that’s the painting of my life and I reckon I would be honoured to have a painting, any life painting to gaze back on.
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📸 an absolutely breathtaking inspiration photo by one of my favourite photographers @joehanlyy
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Derivative work created with permission from the photographer
by Andrea Fedder | Dec 5, 2019
But instead of feeling the dark storm approaching and dropping down the emotional shutters, what about instead of preparing to ‘weather the storm’ you ask ‘whether the storm’ is worth it.
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Oh, the emotional storms of the soul. They make me wonder and then make tired and then make me laugh.
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But instead of feeling the dark storm approaching and dropping down the emotional shutters, what about instead of preparing to ‘weather the storm’ you ask ‘whether the storm’ is worth it.
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Often just asking the question makes you realise, that no, in fact this would be the biggest waste of storm energy
and you can instead release the tension another way.
But sometimes, when you check in with yourself and ask “Whether this storm will break for me?”, it’s also so damn lovely to exhale “Yes” and then surrender to the cleansing rain that follows.
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The thing to remember is you always have the choice to interrogate the validity of your emotional channels.
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📸 the last in this @daniel.wraith inspired series
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Derivative work created with permission from the photographer
by Andrea Fedder | Dec 4, 2019
Don’t be afraid to keep dreaming big creative weird and colourful dreams even if it seems impossible and far away. Those dreams are the fire needed to lift your hot air balloon of dedication and work of that dream and you need a lot of fire to even begin your UpRising (never mind sustain it). And you do not have to already be way up there to earn the right to hold big visions!
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Shooeee I adore these colours, but man they are hard for me to blend. This sky probably has 5 layers on it of trying to get the wishy-washy blend right.
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These hot air balloons got me thinking about my own journey into the artist’s life. I think for years I was a basket on the ground (and some days a basket case), just letting the dream and the vision of life expand so fully that the day came where, whether I was ready or not – the balloon now wanted to rise.
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I’m definitely still one of those baby balloons way at the back hovering an inch off the ground. But man that view once you’re rising – that’s gonna be something to behold!
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Folks often told me when I was younger to tone down my wild dreams – or marry rich… and to all of them, I say f*ck-em!
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Don’t be afraid to keep dreaming big creative weird and colourful dreams even if it seems impossible and far away. Those dreams are your fire and you need a lot of fire to even begin your UpRising (never mind sustain it). And you do not have to already be way up there to earn the right to hold big visions! 💜
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📸 yep – I’m swimming into an @daniel.wraith dreamy colour series like 👩🏼🎤🕺🏼💗🔮
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Derivative work created with permission from the photographer
by Andrea Fedder | Dec 3, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
“I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.”
― Margaret Atwood
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📸 inspired by the dreamy sky of a @daniel.wraith shot.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Derivative work created with permission from the photographer
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