Artist finds inspiration on remote Easter Island

Rapa Nui, the remote Chilean territory in the mid-Pacific widely known as Easter Island, is home to a Catholic church featuring artwork that reflects that islanders' ancestral culture as well as Christian beliefs. Among the eye-catching works are stained glass windows, created by a French-born artist, that portray figures resembling Rapa Nui's inhabitants.

The artist, Delphine Poulain, was born in Paris 52 years ago and has been in love with Rapa Nui since she first visited in 1994. She smiles at the memory.

"I was riding a horse through the beach when I first I thought 'I want to live here,'" she said.

At the time, Poulain lived in Tahiti, working as a professional sailor and often traveling to other islands of Polynesia. One trip to Rapa Nui was enough to envision a future home in this land of extinct volcanoes and monolithic statues called moai, though almost three decades passed before that dream came true.

At times, Poulain worked as a nurse. She became a boat decorator. She occasionally returned to Paris, but her fascination for Polynesia repeatedly brought her back to the Pacific.

On one of those trips back to France, she fell back in love with the man who had been her teenage boyfriend. Now they have two children of their own, and the four of them have made a home in Rapa Nui since 2014.

Poulain says she treasures the freedom and the tranquility provided by the remoteness of the island, home to about 7,700 people.

Last year, thankful for the blessings that Rapa Nui has bestowed on her, Poulain offered a gift: stained-glass windows representing the 14 Stations of the Cross in Holy Cross church, located in Hanga Roa, the island's main city.

Nowadays, the Rapanui community is mostly Catholic, but its...