Name/Title

Takaka Hill View East

About this object

A watercolour landscape: a peaked hill rises in the left foreground, while behind, Tasman Bay stretches around in a circle with the Mount Richmond Range on the far side. A study for the major studio oil painting 'View from Takaka Hill' 1976 (accession #: 443).

Maker

Toss WOOLLASTON

Date Made

1970

Medium and Materials

Watercolour and pencil on paper

Place Made

Takaka Hill

Subject and Association Keywords

Landscapes/Regional landscapes

Subject and Association Keywords

New Zealand/South Island/Nelson/Tasman Bay/Takaka Hill

Subject and Association Keywords

New Zealand/South Island/Nelson/Tasman Bay

Subject and Association Description

Woollaston’s return to Riwaka in 1968 meant a return to the old haunts that had always inspired him. He spent much time painting throughout the region where he had first discovered his vocation. He wrote of his new home; “We have moved into the sun … Fine open space, hills to look up to westward, and far off mountains southward” (Trevelyan, 2004, p.337).

Watercolour landscape studies were an important part of the development of Woollaston's large oils. He described them as "a rapid medium for striking quickly – while the iron is hot, so to speak – and so I like it best in summer, when what is put down dries at once and can take more, almost as fast as I can think" (Barnett, 1991, p.77). This watercolour is one of several studies from the Takaka Hill looking in different directions that form part of the Woollaston 101 collection. The study is for the larger oil, View from Takaka Hill, 1976, also in The Suter's collection.

Named Collection

Woollaston Davies Collection

Credit Line

Gifted by the artist in 1979

Object Type

Painting

Object number

523

Rights

All rights reserved

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