Tuihana with the magic feet

Original painting SOLD, oil on canvas 2130 x 1010mm, 2009

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Print sizes and editions (limited to 275)

• Regular museum archival paper print - 725 x 344mm

Your unique limited edition fine art print

1. Sofia Minson creates your exclusive signed print
2. We ship for $25 in NZ and from $50 internationally
3. Your artwork arrives rolled, ready to be framed - do you need help? Request framing guidance
   
   

The story of Tuihana with the magic feet

This work measuring over two metres high is based on a family story of Sofia's great-great-grandmother Tuihana Teketuwhinau from Ngati Porou. Tuihana married Sofia's great-great-grandfather Popata Pikiuha, probably during the 1850s, and they lived at Te Puia Springs just north of Gisborne.

The story goes that when Tuihana was a little girl she used to race her brothers, sisters and cousins along the path to the kumara patch. After a while of running the children would look around and say "hey, where's Tuihana gone?" and continue confidently towards the finish line. However despite her disappearance, Tuihana would somehow always get to the kumara patch first, beating the rest of the kids. She became known as 'Tuihana with the Magic Feet' because of her mysterious victories. As it turns out, Tuihana had found her own secret and much quicker passage through the nearby forest!

Now over 160 years later, Sofia listens to this little tale that has been passed down through the whanau over generations and feels inspired to create something in response - a painting that describes a light-filled magical world belonging to her great-great-grandmother. The artist had no picture from which to gleam a visual form of Tuihana. She simply portrayed a mystical forest and an imagined face of a young girl who lived long, long ago.

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Sofia Minson Paintings | New Zealand Artwork