Toss Woollaston is justifiably considered one of New Zealand's most important painters, both for his landscapes and his portraits. Late in his career, he spent two years living and working in Queenstown, during which time he made a series of bold studies of the local scenery.

Woollaston's works are characterised by a bravura looseness of line, a style which carries through from his small graphite works and watercolours to his epic oils. His work in the three media is closely related, with pencil and watercolour studies created en plein air often forming the basis for his solid, powerful studio works.

From this, it would be easy to assume that the pencil and watercolour pieces are simple sketches, and that the violent strokes visible in these images are an indication of hasty work done merely as a model for his oils, but nothing could be further from the truth. These images are the result of hours of study by the artist. Woollaston would frequently travel to his chosen site and simply sit for hours, soaking in the mauri of the land, becoming one with his surroundings. Only when he felt that he had absorbed the place's spirit did he feel ready to put pencil or brush to paper. The vibrant colours and dynamic lines reflect his eye for the passage of time on the land, the play of light changing during the course of a day with the movement of sun and clouds across the sky. The images were created with a light air of spontaneity that belies the hours of study that went into them.

The viewer also comes to feel this zen-like connection with the work which, while most apparent in the artist's engulfing large-scale works, is still present in the smaller pieces. The bulk of the mountains and the post-impressionist power of the stark diagonal structure completely dominates The Remarkables [MTW4161], 1974, in a way that is surprising given watercolour's reputation for softness and fluidity of colour. In The Remarkables [MTW4191], 1973, the sense of the solidity of the mountains and the play of light and colour on the slopes is perfectly captured in what at first appear to be a series of haphazard strokes. The same dynamism and drama can be found in the related pencil work, The Remarkables [MTW4169], 1973 .

Woollaston carried this same style, forceful almost to the point of brutality, through to his oils, here represented by several works created in the northern South Island. Pieces such as the elegantly composed Pa Hill and House, ca 1970, show the artist exploring the similar geometries of the house and hill while simultaneously subverting expectations by presenting the house as ethereal, wispier and less substantial than the heavy blocks of solid cloud hanging over the scene.

Presented in partnership with Te Kano Estate.