Hello's and Goodbyes

$300.

Tryphena Harbour, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

It’s on these planks …….lovers embrace. A father waves good bye.

Youth look forward to what the BIG SMOKE has to offer.

Supplies arrive and leave. The pillars get knocked around.

Creates entertainment for locals.

The wharf of Tryphena harbour represents to me a viewing platform for many decisions. I have painted it in the past to represent seasons, highlighting the deep greens of winter and the aqua hues of summer. Using titles that represent key words of what my life has plated up at the time. “Synchronicity” to my recollection was painted during a time when I was listening to The Police and influenced by lyrics and looking into logistics of moving to the island – timing, planning. I remember thinking “give up smoking, coz you won’t be able to afford it”. I was determined to get there. Guess what? Synchronicity had very little to do with it in the end I just had to go for it. Leave a relationship that was going no where fast, pack up my cat and dog and find a job and a very understanding flatmate. That same person had said to me years prior “just leap, and the net will appear”. They live just around the corner from this beautiful wharf. Thanks Sarah.

Tryphena Wharf is a landing for new settlers, a platform from which people leave and never return. Some do.

Its gleaming white pillars create a stabiliser for the figure I owe this painting to, my father and his love for Great Barrier Island.

Dad, sharing the adventure, the people, the good times and the bad in this community is a value instilled in my blood.

When ‘The Barrier grips ya, it’s like a love affair’.

Phone:  0277405549

E-mail: artyhelenknaggs@gmail.com