Visit Nelson | A haven for artists

Maybe it’s something in the air, but the Nelson region has the highest number of working artists per capita in New Zealand, and art and the region have been woven together for centuries here. Maori tribes created art forms in stone, wood and fibre through carving and weaving. Among the earliest of European arrivals in the region were artists Charles Heaphy and William Fox who, using watercolours, created enduring images of the region. Over subsequent decades, hundreds of painters have been drawn to Nelson, including one of the founders of New Zealand modern art, Sir Tosswill Woollaston. The first artist in New Zealand to be knighted, Toss Woollaston was also a leading landscape painter. Among his friends was fellow artist Colin McCahon, now regarded as one of the most important modern painters New Zealand has produced. He, too, spent some years in Nelson. Many other prominent painters have been inspired by the region’s beauty and its residents’ support for the arts.

If an artistic heritage and inspirational setting attracted painters, it was quality clay that drew the potters. With the clay came an alluring lifestyle, and from modest beginnings about forty years ago many Nelson potters have gained international reputations. The region has also become synonymous with glassblowers. Ola Höglund and Marie Simberg-Höglund are from Sweden, but their European skills are now fused with Nelson inspiration to create glass art thatsells around the world.