M T Woollaston (1910-98), New Zealand, The Grey River and mountains, 1960, oil on hardboard. Purchased 1990 with Dugald Henderson Bequest funds

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Great landscape

In 1949, Toss Woollaston moved to Greymouth after many years living and painting in Nelson. He took several years to come to grips with the new landscape, but when he did, it prompted some of his finest works.

By the late 1950s Woollaston had increased the size of his paintings and was working in a vigorous, painterly style to capture the drama and energy of the West Coast.

Writing about The Grey River and mountains when it was first exhibited, fellow artist Rudolf Gopas described the work as ‘a noble and grand interpretation of a great landscape, painted with unerring certainty'.