Stairway to Heaven, 24″ x 12″, Oil on canvas

Stairway to Heaven

This painting arose as I lay myself down under this great Redwood beauty on the last day of my visit to the rainforests of the southern Oregon Coast (a life-long dream realized!). I cast my gaze upward to his great heights and was transported. The rounds of limbs ascending above me became a staircase spiralling up and up, that I could climb, to cloud nine.

Truly this is what these magnificent trees are, each a ‘Stairway to Heaven’ connecting Earth and Sky with such transcendent grandeur. 

I wrote an article about my time with the Redwoods, my experience of them, and in it I speak about how I was surprised to feel them to be quite masculine in nature. (Link to the article: www.barbarabrownart.com/into-the-redwoods/.) Upon further reflection I realized, when considering spiritual growth, that concepts of ‘transcendence’ indeed seem masculine to me —up and out, soaring. And Redwood trees demonstrate this so powerfully. Whereas feminine spiritual pathways feel to be more about somatic embodiment — down and in, deepening. Different approaches for us to connect with divinity.

Trees of course model both these paths for us — rooting down deep into the Earth, while all the while reaching ever skyward. Humans too, we share this with trees, as we also are vertical beings, with our feet planted firmly on the ground while our crowns direct us upwards.

It is ever fascinating to me the places where pondering-upon and painting trees can take me.