The Smallest Yes - (Complete)
A behind the scenes reflection on the making of The Smallest Yes, a painting about having courage in making the small decisions.
In the Making Entry - The Smallest Yes
February 2026
Painting Title: The Smallest yes
WIP Stage: Complete
Canvas Size: 16 x 12 inches
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Theme: Courage
Series: God’s Rope - Chapter I
Current Stage
The Smallest Yes
There are paintings that arrive fully formed in the mind, and there are paintings that unfold slowly, like something being remembered.
The Smallest Yes belonged to the second.
It began not with a detailed plan, but with a feeling. A sense of pause. Of something about to move, but not yet committed to flight. I wanted to paint that exact threshold, the breath before action, the inward decision that no one else sees.
The first layers were muted and restrained. I kept the forest soft, almost dissolving, allowing space around the bird rather than filling it. The branches were placed carefully, not as decoration, but as grounding, as history, as the structure from which courage rises.
The wings were built gradually in translucent glazes. Light was not added as an effect at the end. It was developed patiently, layer by layer, so that it would feel internal rather than applied. I wanted the bird to appear as though it was carrying light, not simply reflecting it.
The golden threads emerged quietly during the middle stages. They were never meant to dominate the composition. They are part of my God’s Rope narrative, the invisible strands of connection between animals, the soul, and the divine. Here they sit gently in the branches, suggesting guidance rather than declaring it.
Throughout the process I resisted the urge to dramatise the moment. This is not a painting about spectacle. It is about subtle courage. About trusting the air before you know you can fly.
As the final layers settled, I understood that this painting was less about movement, and more about consent. The quiet inward yes that reshapes a life.
The Smallest Yes now joins the growing body of work exploring sacred animal messengers and the gentle thresholds that define us.
Sometimes the most important step is barely louder than breath.
🕊️ Progress: 100% — Stage: Complete
100% Complete — Now Available
The Smallest Yes - (In Progress)
A spiritual oil painting in progress exploring light, stillness, and the quiet moment of consent. A bird as messenger, carried by light rather than illuminate
In the Making Entry - The Smallest Yes
January 2026
Painting Title: The Smallest Yes
WIP Stage: Light and movement resolved in a muted palette.
Canvas Size: 12 x 16 inches
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Theme: Connection between realms
Series: Golden Whispers - Golden Thread Collection
Current Stage
At this stage of The Smallest Yes, the colour palette has been intentionally muted to allow the painting to settle into a quieter, more reverent state before completion.
This is a deliberate pause in the process, a moment of listening rather than speaking.
By softening the colour, my focus turns entirely to the behaviour of the light: how it enters the space, how it moves, and how it passes through the bird rather than simply resting on its surface. The bird is not being illuminated so much as carried…held within the light as a messenger rather than an object.
I am currently resolving the feeling of:
light moving through the wings
presence without weight
motion without urgency
and the stillness that exists just before a choice is fully made
Restraint at this stage is essential. Too much colour too soon would disturb the quiet truth the painting is holding. This muted phase allows humility, attentiveness, and reverence to lead the way, so that when colour returns, it arrives with purpose rather than force.
This painting is not about action, but about consent. About the smallest inner agreement… the quiet yes… that alters the course of what follows.
The final layers will reintroduce colour gradually, guided by the light itself, ensuring the finished painting retains this sense of sacred pause and gentle recognition.
🕊️ Progress: 65% — Stage: Resolve the light
65% Complete — Resolve the Light
The Smallest Yes (In Progress)
A warm, radiant study of a bird in flight, captured mid-message as it moves between the earthly and the otherworldly. The first layers of golden light and threads have begun to emerge in this 12x16 oil on canvas.
In the Making Entry
December 2025
Painting Title: The Smallest Yes
WIP Stage: Block-in and First Pass
Canvas Size: 12 x 16 inches
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Theme: Connection between realms
Series: Golden Whispers - Golden Thread Collection
Current Stage
The block-in and first pass of modelling are complete. At this stage the bird’s form has begun to take shape, and the first touches of the golden light and threads are emerging. These early glimmers are the beginnings of its message - a quiet signal of the connection between the earthly and the otherworldly.
Birds have always stood at the threshold between realms for me. They’re gentle messengers that can slip through the thin veil that separates our world from the unseen one. The Smallest Yes carries that symbolism forward, offering a moment where the spiritual and physical meet in a soft rush of wings and light.
More layers, refinement, and the full weaving of God’s golden threads will follow in the next stage.
🕊️ Progress: 45% — Stage: Block-in and First Pass
45% Complete — Block-in & First Pass