struck by the physicality of Pollock's works and he described them as "pictures for people to walk past." He was also influenced by the installations of Allan Kaprow and the sensation of walking through an artwork rather than walking past it. McCahon had visited the studio of Kaprow and he also saw Kaprow's work exhibited in New York at the Hansa Gallery. After this trip, McCahon's use of scale and space shifted, most notably in The Northland Panels, his work consisted of eight panels, monocoat on canvas. Another work completed in 1958, after McCahon's return from America, was The Wake, which was exhibited at The Gallery in Symonds Street, Auckland. The Wake consisted of 16 panels and incorporated words from poems by John Caselberg. McCahon used Allan Kaprow's term 'environment' when he described the work in a lecture in 1963 as having been hung to "create a complete environment." Landscape A constant theme throughout McCahon's art is his exploration of the religious. His landscapes, in particular, are imbued with a sense of the spiritual. Even more overtly, McCahon often sets Biblical scenes in the contemporary New Zealand landscape. His Otago Peninsula (1949), currently in the collection of the Dunedin Public Library, was the realization of a schoolboy vision inspired by Otago. A Te Papa profile of McCahon has described his landscapes as "often stark and empty (rather than picturesque), raising questions about the human histories of these seemingly unpopulated landscapes." Muriwai paintings In the series Necessary Protection, McCahon represents the Muriwai coastline as a site of spiritual nourishment. Word paintings McCahon's large-format "word paintings" combine his religious and abstraction tendencies. His early religious paintings created a very literal connection between the events and locations of the Bible and his native soil. He started incorporating words into his paintings in the 1940s, a move often criticized by the public, but which he felt was necessary to directly communicate with the viewers of his art. The Early Religious Paintings are testament to McCahon's 1939 aim to connect God and land for the sake of peace. Legacy Family house museum and artists' residency The McCahon family house near French Bay, Titirangi, Auckland, now serves as a small museum about Colin McCahon and his family. The house is surrounded by kauri trees. A more contemporary house and studio on the same section of land serves as the base for the McCahon House artists' residency.