Go Through.

Ascension - 30"x40" - Mixed media on canvas, ©2025, Elise Ehrenholz.

Do you dream a lot? I do. This painting is based on one that felt so profound. It was like I was actually there, every detail so sharp, emotions so overwhelming. It was ethereal. And I was climbing a mountain. With every step I took I was looking around in wonderment. The sky was the bluest I had ever seen, the birch trees, a hundred times their regular size, their green leaves making the sound of rain as the wind moved through them. I hiked to a plateau and there was a lake that hadn't been seen in a very long time, the remnant of some ancient glacier. It was the palest blue and perfect for swimming. And I just stood there having this amazing feeling of nostalgia and of being completely known. Is this what Heaven will look like? I would like to think so. Have you ever been in the mountains and stood completely still on a trail with the sounds of the forest surrounding you with the odd snapping of a branch or the sweetest random bird call? It was very much like that, and very much as if I had stepped through the looking glass to another reality entirely.

The initial stages of this piece took shape quite quickly. It was quite a surprise to me. I guess it knew what it wanted to be right off the mark. I used a lot of large brush strokes to begin and tried to keep the application of the paint as loose as possible. The last thing I painted in the first session was the waterfall, and it totally made it. It felt like an epiphany. I used a lot of yellow and white and blue. I loved how those colours mixed together, such feeling of connectedness with the river winding around to the bottom of the page. The softness of it all spoke to me. It immediately had a feeling of going up higher, of discovery. I added the pastels then because they bring such a feeling of spontaneity. How fresh they feel interspersed with the acrylic paint! Pastels drawn over top of a flower heads, pastels applied in a generous motion, pastels circling little dots of paint! How they brought more life with them! All those tiny details adding up and ushering in a certain joie de vivre! It was at this point I felt the painting looked finished. It had a lovely hill and a waterfall and some circles, I mean what else could be added? It looked finished, and yet it wasn't because it didn't feel finished. It needed a breakthrough, something to happen to it to really make it become the best it could be. I chose to boldly push through what may be described best as an "expected outcome". I took the biggest filbert brush I had and started randomly painting in lines and circles. There wasn't any going back now, the decision had been made, and the paint had dried. True to form they became like giant blades of grass and flowers, a meadow, which I obviously love.

Then came the whole process of the middle. If you've ever created anything, the middle of the work can be a challenge. There can be a lot of trial and error here. You are trying to see the vision to the end to get the result you see or feel, and well it can be a bit hard to work through. I felt it was necessary to just sit with the canvas at this point. I listened to worship music for a while, trying to get the feel of the room so I could translate it into an expression in medium. I had to go back to the Source and align my thoughts and heart with that deep connection. I sat and remembered what that amazing dream had felt like and it's then that I picked up the brush. I never want to rush my art, it doesn't turn out so well if I do. I have to go at the pace it prescribes. So it was paint and then pastels and then paint and then pastels again with a pause every now and then to assess whether or not I was going in the right direction. Every time through that cycle kept bringing the depth that I was looking for. The unkempt lines of the pastels and the smoothness of the paint lent themselves to such a wonderful harmony. It felt wonderful too. No fear in the room! What was there to lose? Nothing, only something to be gained. What a beautiful process it was! I felt something shift in my own style in this studio session. It felt like I was getting closer to the sparkle that I had subconsciously been looking for. The brave red-orange of this step was just what it needed. And it related to other pieces that I had done that speak about overcoming insurmountable obstacles to get to the experience of new life with a new and better fullness. It made sense then that the next colour I added was blue, blue for water, blue for the river that I had painted in at the beginning. It filled in the negative space with a sense of purpose, covering the canvas in such a way so that what was there before was no longer significant and now even forgettable. And then the pink. I am increasingly obsessed with this colour. What does pink bring? Lightness. Softness. Hope. Life. Rest. One kind of floats along on some kind of lovely lazy river when light pink comes into play. It is calm and welcoming and it brings refreshment with it. Then the loveliest of bright greens in contrast to it. The green of springtime after a long winter when the trees are just starting to bud out. Then it was more blue, more bold, and then it started to pop. And that pop well, it was red paint. Anyone whose every painted anything knows that red paint right out of the tube is a risky endeavour anytime, but especially near the end. It needed red, bold red, and that red was all for the better. The more I painted red, the more it needed. The result of the red was that the piece had more impact and I'm always after that. It felt more joyful too. Alive. I had to let go at this point of what I thought it was going to look like and embrace what it had become. My expectation had to shift. It had become less about the actual mountain scene looking the way it might look in nature and more about the approach of it from a distance, and about how it would feel if you were right there amongst the flowers. How thrilling would it be to walk through them! It would be like stepping through a beautiful, fragrant, delicate veil. Such a feeling of anticipation would rise up in one’s spirit. Something beyond comprehension was about to be experienced.

It was final touches then with the bronze and various shades of yellow. These colours always bring such a rich feeling with them, a majesty that seems so appropriate. I wanted it to drip with it. The effect of allurement was complete. Something like that just beckons doesn't it? So saturated with fullness, yet not completely erasing the mountain rise beyond. If one looks with the eyes of their heart it is still beautifully present. The waterfall is cascading over the edge of the cliff. One can almost hear its roar. The spruce trees are still standing tall in all their glory, and the dappled light, shimmering everywhere, announces a sense of eternity, declaring the truth that we all know, that what we see with our eyes isn't all there is. In this painting I was trying to capture that which was extraordinary. I wanted a visual reminder of the dream I had. It was exceptional and I would love to relive it. And while the dream that inspired this piece felt so beyond any kind of average day experience, that place is not actually real, at least not that I know of. In the making of this piece I was talking about my in-process photos when the person I was talking with commented that it was like one was standing at the rim of a valley looking to the mountain in the distance. They were on the verge of an adventure. It was like she could already see the heart of the painting before it was done. I knew I had to pursue that idea and the work instantly had become about pursuit and not just a beautiful something to look at. This is why I take the time to ponder what I am doing because my art is just not about just making a nice picture, there are messages to them, and one really has to take the time to listen. I don't want to miss the mark.

"Ascension" is a very real nod to the supernatural world that we do live in. If you've been following after Jesus for anytime at all you know that this is really how it is. And to get to the mountain one has to climb, to truly experience that "Rocky Mountain High", a person needs to go through the veil of flowers, down into the valley and cross the river to get to the other side. This requires humility, effort, fortitude, and an unwavering belief that one can do it. Standing on the edge of something is simply not enough anymore and actual steps have to be taken to come closer to make that climb a reality. That sense of dissatisfaction in you is growing and you are going to have to allow yourself to be stretched. Some journeys require that you embark on them without completely understanding where you are going. These kinds of adventures require only enough light for your next step. And they require the tug of one’s heart. The flowers that I painted over almost everything with are exactly about that. Their freshness draws us in to experience more of their beauty. Such sweet incense. It's almost as if they are a signpost saying, "Walk this way!" While it's wisdom to have done some prep work before embarking, there has to be more to it. Do you step out into the unknown because you want to know how it all turns out from the beginning or are you after something more valuable to you than your comfort? This is very much a picture of faith. It has to be about a deep motivation that compels us toward the undiscovered of God. It has to be about that which we cannot quite put our finger on. And even if we can't see it all or understand it all there is a deep calling to deep happening all the time. These are the fingerprints of God. We are noticing them and they are beckoning us to move out beyond our known experience, into the more that only comes from Him. What is more valuable than life with Jesus? Absolutely nothing. He is life itself. It's time to go through the veil. Let Jesus be your guide. He is the Good Shepherd and He has already gone ahead of us. And I feel like God is saying, “Press.”

"Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves have gone over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me - a prayer to the God of my life." - Psalm 42:7,8

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd." - John 10: 14-16.

"Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, 'Truly this Man was the Son of God!" - Mark 15:38

"For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you'. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immuatable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." - Hebrews 6:13-20

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”-Romans 10:9-10

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” – John 6:29

Keep stretching your hands out to God dear hearts. Pour your heart out like a waterfall to Him. The road has surely been rough, but we are mighty in Him. Praise you Jesus. You did it all.