Toss Woollaston
Encyclopedia
Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston (1910–1998) was one of the most important New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 painters of the 20th century.

Born in Toko
Toko
Toko is a small rural settlement 10 kilometres east of Stratford, New Zealand, at the intersection of East Road and Toko Road. It is located on a railway, the Stratford - Okahukura Line, the western portion of which was operated as a branch line known as the Toko Branch prior to the line's...

, Taranaki on April 11, 1910, Woollaston studied art at the Canterbury School of Art
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...

 in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

. He became interested in modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 after moving to Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

 to study with R N Field.

In 1934 he settled at Mapua, near Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....

, and married Edith Alexander two years later. They became part of a circle of local artists and writers which included Colin McCahon
Colin McCahon
Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist. During his life he also worked in art galleries and as a university lecturer...

. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the Woollastons moved to Greymouth
Greymouth
Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coast's inhabitants...

, and the landscape of the West Coast
West Coast, New Zealand
The West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country. It is made up of three districts: Buller, Grey and Westland...

 became a major feature in his art.

It was only from the 1960s that Woollaston was able to paint full-time; previously he had taken numerous part time jobs to support himself and his family.

As well as painting, Woollaston wrote, poetry in particular having been a lifelong passion. His books included The Far-away Hills in 1960, and Sage Tea (his autobiography) in 1980.

He was made a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 in 1979, being the first New Zealander to be knighted for his services to art (Peter Siddell
Peter Siddell
Sir Peter Graham Siddell, KNZM, QSO was a noted New Zealand artist.Siddell was born in Auckland and educated at Mt Albert Grammar School and the Auckland College of Education. In 1960 he married artist Sylvia Siddell. They live in Auckland and have two adult daughters. Siddell had painted...

 being the second).

Woollaston died in Upper Moutere
Upper Moutere
Upper Moutere is a locality in the Tasman District near Nelson at the top of New Zealand's South Island.-History:...

 on August 30, 1998.

His son Philip Woollaston
Philip Woollaston
Hon Philip Tosswill Edmond Woollaston was a New Zealand member of Parliament of the Labour Party from 1981 to 1990 and Mayor of Nelson, New Zealand from 1992 to 1998....

 was the (Labour) Member of Parliament for Nelson
Nelson (New Zealand electorate)
Nelson is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. From 1853 to 1860, the electorate was called Town of Nelson. From 1860 to 1881, it was City of Nelson...

from 1981 to 1990.

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