🕊 The First Ascent: A Sacred Moment Between Souls

A quiet colour study exploring the unseen thread of connection between a woman, a horse, and the divine.

Discover the story behind The First Ascent, a tender colour study exploring the sacred connection between woman, horse, and the divine.

There is a quiet invitation woven through every brushstroke of “The First Ascent”. At a gentle 8 by 10 inches, this oil painting on canvas board holds a tender moment - an encounter soft and sacred, brushed in muted hues and gentle light. Here, a woman with curls like melted amber folds inward, eyes closed in peaceful meditation, her hands pressed softly together as if gathering prayer into her being. Beside her stands a white horse, calm and steady, its head lowered in a gesture of quiet reverence. Their presence is wrapped in a swirl of smoky light, a mist that seems less like air and more like the breath of something divine.

“The First Ascent” is born from a place deep in my heart - where the bond between human and animal is not just seen but felt as a golden thread, a connection that stretches beyond the flesh, beyond time. This thread is what I call God’s Rope, a celestial pathway woven from our shared moments of trust and tenderness. It leads upward, toward the infinite, where heaven and earth gently touch.

This piece is a small colour study for a larger work to come, but in its quiet simplicity it carries the weight of many whispered prayers. The glow that surrounds them is not harsh or bright, but ethereal as the early dawn - a light that speaks of the sacred mystery between us and the creatures who walk beside us. It is a light of belonging, of harmony in the stillness.

In painting “The First Ascent”, I found myself reaching for a feeling more than an image: the sacred presence that arises when two souls meet without words. The horse’s bowed head and the woman’s closed eyes mirror a silent prayer - not for answers, but for connection. Through this, I am reminded that the Divine often looks like a quiet breath shared in companionship, an invisible thread spun from love and the yearning to ascend.

This painting holds the innocence of that first step upward - the gentle, unspoken moment when spirit reaches out, tethered to grace by golden strands. It asks us to see with the heart, to feel the soft tether that pulls us toward something greater. In stillness and reverence, “The First Ascent” becomes a sacred space where the human and the holy meet, held gently by trust and the quiet glow of unity.