PROVENANCE. Private Collection, Auckland. Purchased from Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland 2004.

EXHIBITED Contemporary NZ Painting & Sculpture, Auckland City Art Gallery April, 1960 - original Auckland Art Gallery label verso

After World War II the Woollastons moved to Greymouth, and the landscape of the West Coast became a major feature in his art. Blackball is a small town on the West Coast approximately 29 km from Greymouth.

While Blackball, 1954 is not a scene which yields to romantic notions of the landscape, it has a strong and traditional perspective. Sweeping brushstrokes build tension in the work, enhancing the sense of majesty and the unshakable force of the mountains in the background. Woollaston is best known for his spirited renderings of the New Zealand landscape, often muddy and brown-hued in their appearance. 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.