Woollaston celebrated
Nestled in a park dedicated to preserving Nelson’s history, a boutique gallery is celebrating the legacy of one of the region’s best known artists.
The Atkins Gallery – located at Founders Heritage Park – will present original watercolours and drawings by the late modernist artist Sir Toss Woollaston in an exhibition opening this weekend. The works, made available by the Toss Woollaston Trust, are for sale.
As part of the Nelson Heritage Month/Tuku 21 Whakatu events, the exhibition includes figurative artwork, including an oil study and watercolour nudes, alongside a work from his portrait series Erua.
Atkins Gallery reopened at Founders in October 2020, after a twoyear break. The specialist gallery deals exclusively with Toss Wollaston watercolours and drawings of the Nelson/Tasman region, alongside artwork by a small selection of local artists.
Woollaston’s works on display include watercolours of Tasman Bay, Mt Campbell , Mt Arthur, Lyttleton Harbour and Horoirangi. Also included are drawings, with an early sketch from Ma¯pua and an early portrait of the famous local identity Eelco Boswijk.
Gallery owner Linda Atkins said she was fortunate to have the chance to exhibit Woollaston’s artworks – one of a select few around the country to do so. The gallery’s location at Founders Heritage Park was ideal, as Woollaston’s art was a significant part of the fabric of the region’s artistic heritage, she added.
Woollaston is the region’s most esteemed artist and one of New Zealand art history’s most important 20th century artists, a pioneer of European modernism.
Born Mountford Tosswill Woollaston in Toko, Taranaki in 1910, he moved to Motueka in 1928.
This was the start of his Tasman residence, an ongoing relationship throughout his highly productive life painting and drawing in the region. He was knighted for his services to painting in 1979 and died in 1998.
The exhibition opens tomorrow, 5pm.