PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection Purchased from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington 2001

Presenting a complex, rugged view of the West Coast, this painting by Toss Woollaston is typical of the artist's style and the modernist spirit of the Barber Collection. While it is not a scene which yields to romantic notions of the landscape, it has a strong and traditional perspective. Sweeping horizontal brushstrokes build tension in the upper third of the work, enhancing the sense of majesty and unshakable force of the mountains in the background.

One of the Barber Collection's founding works was a Woollaston watercolour (Lot 32), presented to Paul as a farewell gift from his law firm when he was appointed as District Court Judge in 1981. Paul and Kerry's appreciation for the artist continued to grow, and they later acquired Blackball from Peter McLeavey Gallery. In a letter to them, McLeavey describes it as a lovely warm work. Sir Mountford Tosswill Woollaston is best known for his spirited renderings of the New Zealand landscape, often muddy and brown-hued in their appearance.

Whether viewing one of his large scale oil paintings or a more modest sketch on paper, one encounters an intrinsic value common to all of his works, i.e. depth and visceral quality; rawness and honesty in relation to the land.