November 2022

Inspiration for this series came while exploring the mountains of British Columbia's interior. The stillness, clear perspective, and peace continued to strike me while painting in these high-altitude environments. The landscapes, though familiar in my BC upbringing, felt out of this world with every encounter of its unrestrained beauty. On each step I felt called to go further up, and further in. It felt like I kept stumbling into pockets of heaven just waiting for someone to see it.

"Further up and further in" is a line from my favourite children's books growing up, the Chronicles of Narnia, where the last book ends with the characters finally arriving in a new world symbolic of heaven, but this ending is only the beginning. As I journeyed and painted I kept seeing a parallel from my feelings to the feelings of those characters which in turn inspired the name for the series.

This series was a reminder to me that heaven is often right in front of us. To see it, all we have to do is step further up and look further in.

Because sometimes I need to write a song to complete my thoughts on a season, you can listen to the song here.