Description

Beautiful original piece ( Rock Pool) Signed By renowned artist Donald R. Neilson In excellent condition Dimension 40.6x 50.8 cm A Wairarapa man whose talents with a paint brush earned him a reputation as one of New Zealand's best landscape artists . Don Neilson, led a varied and full life as a professional painter and his works were keenly sought by galleries and art lovers worldwide. Paintings by Neilson have been presented to dignitaries including the King of Thailand, governors-general, to city councils and to decorate government buildings. As a young man in Wellington, Neilson was destined for a business career but his passion was always for art, both drawing and painting. He started by embarking on weekend painting trips around the rugged Wellington and Wairarapa coastline as far north as Castlepoint, sometimes in the company of fellow artist John Magurk. Neilson spoke of the great outdoors as being the only art school he ever attended. In Wairarapa, Neilson lived firstly in Masterton, where his two oldest sons Warwick and Rob attended Wairarapa College, before shifting to Greytown . Apart from painting, Neilson incorporated his art in books. One in particular, The Art of DR Neilson is now a rare and highly sought after book of his best work. Many of the colour plates are of Wairarapa scenes and Neilson authored an account of his life and philosophy along with explanations of how individual paintings came into being. In the late 1970s the Neilsons moved to the Bay of Plenty living at Tarawera and then Rotorua but returned to Wairarapa in 1990. Neilson's many successful art exhibitions helped cement him as one of the country's leading painters. He was regarded as being very unlucky not to have won a Kelliher Art competition and his appreciation of all art forms went well beyond painting.