After visiting Tahiti and Moorea, the Cook Expedition went on to visit the rest of the Society Islands, Huaine, Raiatea, and Bora Bora. Before leaving Tahiti, Cook had inquired of his Tahitian friends if they new of any island to the north. Their answer that they were aware of no large islands to the north, corroborated the wisdom of the day that the center of the Pacific was a large expanse of open water. When the Resolution and Discovery left Tahiti, they were bound northward across the center of the Pacific, en route to the North West Coast of North America where Captain Cook was under orders to chart these unknown areas and to find, if possible, the western entrance to the Northwest Passage. When the expediton left Tahiti they anticipated nothing more than a long uneventful voyage to their assigned duties. The painting shows the Resolution and Discovery as they plough northward through heavy seas.

The mountainous seas of the Pacific belie its name and the passage north from Tahiti was a dangerous and desolate voyage to the Northwest Coast. Only the magnificent seafarers, the albatross, could truly be at home in this vast ocean. In this painting I wanted to capture the frailty of Man and his tiny ships, with only Man’s courage and his spirit of adventure to pit against the ferocity of the sea.

It is that very spirit of adventure and James Cook’s fathomless courage that inspired me to paint this series on exploration.