Nelson City Centre ArtWalk
Make/Shift Spaces and The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū
ArtWalk Nelson takes you around art installations in central Nelson.
Many thanks to all the property owners and tenants for being part of ArtWalk.
Te Aratoi o Whakatū
208 Bridge Street
Begin or end your ArtWalk (or take a mid-Walk break) at The Suter. Their ever-changing exhibitions often include one or more of the ArtWalk paintings.
Nelson Landscape
Corner of New Street & Halstead Street
William Allen had a strong influence on New Zealand artists in the Modernist movement, as well as being Art Master at Nelson College.
The Apple Pickers
163 Bridge Street (Fresh Choice)
Painted in 1944, Rita Angus' The Apple Pickers is one of those rare art works that seems timeless – it could just as easily have been painted in 2021.
After Rain, Takaka
Salvation Army Store, 1 Montgomery Square (between Hardy St & Montgomery Sq)
Leo Bensemann has painted a ‘portrait’ of Tākaka Hill with its weather-sculpted rocks scattered over its summit.
Self Portrait
69 Collingwood Street (Fresh Choice)
In what is possibly his last self-portrait, Leo Bensemann has placed himself against a Golden Bay landscape, a place that meant a great deal to him.
Untitled (Golden Bay landscape)
5 New Street
Leo Bensemann has painted golden sands, steep hillsides and rocky outcrops - all characteristic features of the beautiful Golden Bay coastline.
Ladies Day
171 Trafalgar Street (next to Taking Shape Ladies Fashion)
Jane Evans' Ladies Day captures a day on the green, with one woman focused on her putting, another being the imperious observer, and then the chatterer, with her back to us.
Saturday Afternoon I
15 Bridge Street (on the old Nelson Evening Mail Printing Press building between Bridge St & Wakatu Lane)
Jane Evans has captured a quintessential Nelson scene: a Saturday afternoon yacht race on Nelson Harbour.
Summer Siesta
Fiddle Lane (next to Nelson Day Spa at 86 Bridge Street)
Jane Evans' reclining woman, languidly at rest in the heat of the day, was deemed too distracting for the intended boardroom location.
Western Coast of Tasman Bay
8 New Street
If there were ever an artwork intended to ‘sell’ New Zealand in the 1880s and celebrate the picturesque beauty of the Nelson region, then it's John Gully's Western Coast of Tasman Bay.
All Along the Heaphy Highway
27 Halifax Street (on the wall of Nelson Library, facing Riverside Youth Pop-Up Park)
Bill Hammond’s surrealist landscape is about the controversy surrounding building a road to connect the top of the West Coast with the Nelson region, using the Heaphy Track.
The Little Emigrant
27 Halifax Street (Elma Turner Nelson Library)
Laura Herford has captured a little emigrant girl on her way to Nelson, looking out over the ocean and dreaming of home.
At the Slip
168 Trafalgar Street (Westpac Bank carpark)
Nelson’s port and marina provided Irvine Major with a wealth of interesting subject matter – including these colourful vessels on the slipway.
Summer in Nelson
56 Buxton Square (on the back wall of Farmers)
Irvine Major nailed the ‘essence of Nelson’ when he painted this picture, if the sales of postcards bearing this image are anything to go by.
Tidal Stream I
15 Bridge Street (Nelson Mail)
Irvine Major created many artworks inspired by the coastline from Tōtaranui to Stephens Bay near Kaiteriteri, where the artist’s family had a bach.
Mrs Pérrine Moncrieff, Nelson
27 Bridge Street (Suburban Bus Station)
Marjorie Naylor's portrait of Pérrine Moncrieff shows her as a busy woman, so busy that she knitted socks while being painted.
Still Life With Mullet
105 Montgomery Sq (Harry's Fish Shop)
Ross Ritchie has done a painting within a painting, but with a very peculiar fish that is out of proportion with either scene.
Rocks Road in the making
113 Hardy Street (Untouchable Hair)
Charlotte Sadd's Rocks Road in the making shows the construction of one of Nelson's signature stretches of road, which was officially opened in February 1899.
Aftermath
79 Rutherford Street (next to Chokdee Restaurant)
Cedric Savage's Aftermath is probably a compilation of different aspects of Golden Bay, with Tata Island perhaps, in the middle distance.
Aratoi
15 Bridge Street (Nelson Mail)
This painting refers to the Māori name for The Suter Art Gallery: Te Aratoi o Whakatū. Ara is pathway. Toi relates to art and knowledge. Te Aratoi o Whakatū: the pathway to art in Nelson.
Kōkōwai
43 Montgomery Square (near the bike stand)
Robin Slow's painting depicts the origins of kōkōwai, a stone that is ground to make a red ochre pigment, and which, when applied, can denote tapu (sacredness).
Boy and Dolphin
75 Rutherford Street (at the rear of Bed Bath & Beyond)
Michael Smither researched and painted a series of humans with a dolphin after being commissioned to do a cover image for Maurice Shadbolt’s novel This Summer’s Dolphin.
Lake Series 10, Rotoiti
93 Montgomery Square (next to Robert Harris Cafe)
Brian Strong's Lake Series 10, Rotoiti is painted from a high viewpoint, capturing the dramatic scale of the Nelson Lakes landscape.
Untitled (from the verandah at Speargrass Station)
14 New Street (Quin Dental)
Enga Washbourn has made a lively image with the unusual and dramatic forms of cacti and succulent plants.
From Spooners Range
105 Montgomery Square (Pomeroys Coffee & Tea)
Many of Toss Woollaston’s landscapes are from a high vantage point, embracing more than the eye can see in one glance. From Spooners Range depicts the spectacular view looking towards Tasman Bay.
Kiln near Riwaka
227 Hardy Street (next to Harcourts Real Estate)
Toss Woollaston painted the landscapes he knew and the people around him over and over again, including this hop kiln on the way to Golden Bay.
View from Takaka Hill
23 Wakatu Lane (behind the Suburban Bus Station)
Sometimes an artwork affects how you look at a landscape. Once you have seen this painting, it might change the way you regard the view from the top of Tākaka Hill looking towards Motueka.