Tobacco fields, by Doris Lusk

Tobacco fields, Pangatotara, Nelson, 1943, by Doris Lusk.

Doris Lusk (1916–90) painted this work during a holiday in Nelson with Colin and Anne McCahon in the summer of 1942–43. Lusk and Colin McCahon both painted the same scene. While McCahon concentrated on the undulating forms of the hills, Lusk included the valley and used a more conventional spatial treatment. The motif of industrial imagery imposed upon the landscape is typical of Lusk and is seen in her best-known painting, The pumping station.