World War II, McCahon had initially tried to enlist for military service after deciding that the defeat of fascism was a global necessity – even from his pacifist standpoint. He was rejected from active service due to an enlarged heart. In September 1940 and November 1943, he was guest exhibitor with The Group show in Christchurch. He became a member of The Group in 1947 and contributed work regularly until its demise in 1977. During 1944, McCahon collaborated with his wife producing watercolours collectively called Pictures for Children. In 1940, he had a small exhibit in Wellington and produced his first commissioned work, Otago Peninsula. Between 1940 and 1950, McCahon was commissioned by the Department of Education to produce an illustration for the New Zealand School Journal. This illustration is now held at the Archives New Zealand. Later, leaving his family at home, he traveled around the South Island for seasonal work, which subsequently led to his artwork reflecting the places where he traveled, particularly the Nelson region. McCahon’s first mature works, religious paintings and symbolic landscapes, such as The Angel of the Annunciation, Takaka: Night and Day, and The Promised Land, were produced in the years immediately after the war. During this time, a notable portrait of McCahon was painted by Doris Lusk. Married life McCahon married fellow artist Anne Hamblett (1915–1993) in 1942 at St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin. As a wedding present, McCahon and Hamblett received a book by C. A. Cotton, The Geomorphology of New Zealand. This book proved to have an influence on his art. As McCahon relied on seasonal work, his wife returned to live with her parents. Over the next five years, their time together was intermittent. The couple had four children – two daughters and two sons: William, Catherine, Victoria and Matthew. Career McCahon began the first of his early religious paintings, I Paul to you at Ngatimoti, in 1946 in Nelson. These works depicted events from Christ’s life in a New Zealand setting. McCahon was never a member of a church, but acknowledged that religious questions were central to his work. In the 1940s, words began to appear in his work often resulting in public criticism. McCahon felt the directness of words could help, provide a 'way in' to his images, a long tradition within painted images, especially in religious art. In 1947, he worked as a labourer, and in 1948 worked