Building a studio on land purchased with his wife’s inheritance money in 1968, McCahon spent weekends and university holidays at the wild west coast beach. He became entranced by the return of gannets to Moturoa Island where they nested from August to March each year. After he left teaching at Elam at the end of 1970 and became a full-time painter, McCahon completed the Necessary Protection series that segued into the Jump series of 28 paintings. This work appears like an abstract diagram with a diagonal dotted line, a black column on the right and the word JUMP at the bottom. Like the others in the Jump series, it was inspired by the leap of faith that the young gannets took as fledglings when they leapt off the rock in their first attempt at flying. For McCahon this jump was a metaphor for the need to take a risk in order to grow. He gifted miniature Jumps like this one to friends as Christmas gifts. The Large Jump (now in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery) was completed in 1973 in time to be shown at the Canterbury Society of Arts gallery in January-February 1974. It was included in the exhibition Art NZ ’74 which was organised to coincide with the Commonwealth Games being held in Christchurch. In that context, the word jump was mistaken for an allusion to athletics.

Colin McCahon database. record number cm000571

Elizabeth Steiner Collection Purchased from Fine New Zealand Paintings, Webb’s, 14/6/1995 Includes a facsimile of the envelope in which the painting was delivered to the original owner.