The Spirit’s Flight (Te Rerenga Wairua – Cape Rēinga Lighthouse)

• 700 x 450mm
• Acrylic, newsprint and compressed charcoal on board in recycled cedar window frame
• 2023
• $3200

The Cape Reinga lighthouse, completed in 1941, replaced the lighthouse on nearby Motuopao Island. The lighthouse presents an impressive sight looking out from the top of the North Island to the meeting of the Tasman and Pacific oceans. This painting was inspired by the following extract: ‘Cape Reinga where the kuaka, the godwit, takes its annual flight for the equatorial regions, the surf washed rocky promontory where our Māori souls lose their last grip of this land and enter the ocean-door of Po; returning to Hawaiki. They follow the setting sun.’
(Pomare, M. and Cowan, J. Legends of the Māori. Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs/Harry H. Tombs, 1930–1934)