Background

Tony Foster was born on April 2, 1946, in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Education

Tony Foster made his first steps in painting as a child. He studied at Saint Albans and Ravensbourne Schools of Art.

Career

Tony Foster began his career as an educator of art. Throughout the 1960s-1970s, he served as teacher and visual arts officer, organized exhibitions, and produced pop art.

In 1982, Foster in a company of photographer James Ravilious made his first watercolor journey in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson in the south of France. Expected to be a simple plein-air practice experiment, it became a turning point in Foster’s long ongoing career of watercolor diarist. The works from the expedition were presented at the show ‘Donkey in the Cévennes’ held at the Curwen Gallery, London.

Bolstered by the success of the show, during the subsequent years, Tony Foster has made watercolor journeys to a great number of other destinations, including these retracing the steps of his “philosophical hero” Henry David Thoreau, writer John Muir, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, and the American West. To transmit the tiny nuances of the wild nature beauty, the artist often faces difficult physical conditions and weather states, like high winds, heavy rainfall and snowfall, underwater currents, extreme heat, and other circumstances. The number of such artistic expeditions reached seventeen to date.

Tony Foster has demonstrated his landscape masterpieces around the world, including at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Royal Watercolor Society and the Royal Geographical Society, both in London, Frye Art Museum, and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Nowadays, he resides in Tywardreath, Cornwall with his family. The latest solo exhibition of the artist featuring new works from his seventh journey, this to Idaho’s Rocky Mountains, was organized at Gail Severn Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho.

Achievements

• Tony Foster is an accomplished artist and explorer whose diary-like watercolor landscapes are praised for their beauty and informational content. His artworks give many people the possibility to discover the places which they would never visit.
  
  Among the seventeen artistic journeys he made to capture the world’s wild beauties, there is the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. He is the only person who managed to portray all three sides of the mountain.
  
  Foster’s artistic talent and the contribution he made for landscape painting have been marked by such awards like Yosemite Renaissance Prize and Cherry Kearton Memorial Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. The artist’s wilderness expeditions have been spotlighted in major newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Independent, New York Times, and others.
  
  There are two television documentaries on his work, the first one of 1988 by Television South West, and the second, 1999 ‘Paint the Fire’, by BBC Radio 4.
  
  Foster’s artworks are acquired by many notable museums and art galleries, including Stanford University, California, Phoenix Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Yosemite National Park, California, and Sierra Nevada Museum of Art. In 1988, one of his works was purchased by the United States National Park Service. Besides, the permanent collection of his landscapes can be seen at the Foster Art & Wilderness Foundation in Palo Alto.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • From Le Pont-de-Montvert to Florac

  • From Mather Pass to Pinchot Pass

  • Mount Katahdin

  • Phantom Ranch to Granite Rapids

  • Mar de Cortes No 5 – from a Hill Northeast of Punta Mechudo Looking 340° NNW

  • Corcovado: March 24, 1992: The Pacific Looking West North West from the Sendero Rio Claro

  • From a Ridge Below Ants Basin Looking 320º NNW to the Whiteclouds

  • Montserrat from Harris Lookout, 190º S to Soufrière Hills Volcano

  • The Gates of the Rocky Mountains, Looking N from Numbum Rock

  • Kaieteur Falls Looking S from Ranger Point

  • Mile 276.5: From Below Campbell’s Ferry Looking 340º N Upriver

  • Mile 363.5

  • Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam Looking NE from near Syangboche

  • Looking East from Railroad Ridge

  • The First Signs of Autumn – Looking NNE Downriver

  • Cabezon Peak from a Mesa to the North

  • Dibé Ntsaa

  • Tsisnaasjiní

  • From Muley Point Looking SSW to Tse'bii'nidzisgai (Monument Valley)

  • Camp II – Chinle

  • Christ in the Desert Monastery, Looking North on the Rio Chama

  • Looking South to Bell Rock

  • Tsé Bit’a’í (Shiprock), Looking South Southwest from Park Point, Mesa Verde

  • Seven Days by Havasu Creek, Navajo & 50 Foot Falls, Looking West Southwest

  • Fall Colour in Great Meadow, Concord

  • Parinacota Looking Due North across Lago Chungara – 5 Days at 15,400'

  • 7 November – The Night Sky from ALMA

  • Denali and Wonder Lake Looking South from Ansel Adams Point

  • Vilamendhoo – Dive 20

  • Velidhoo – North Ari Atoll – Looking West

  • Ilulissat from 400' above Our Camp at Kingigtoq Looking 220° True SW across the Kangia

  • An Unnamed Rockface Looking West from My Tent above the Kama Valley

  • Luxulyan Valley Hedge

  • Looking West from Pencarrow Head

  • Looking East from Coombe

Views

Quotations: "I’m a painter who started exploring."

"My work is not simply concerned with describing the landscape, but is about travelling slowly, living in wild places, and about encounters with people, objects, flora and fauna."

"The essence of a diary [is to] record one’s experiences and observations on the spot when they occur, not filtered either by memory or Nikon lens."

"There is something uniquely appropriate about making watercolour diaries about river journeys… you are literally carried away by your subject."

"My hope is that when my work is exhibited, not only will people be struck by the extraordinary beauty of the places I find, but it will also strengthen their resolve to protect these places from depredation."

Membership

Tony Foster was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London in 1994.

• Royal Geographical Society , United Kingdom

  1994

Personality

Tony Foster has lots of friends from the journeys he makes. There are many scientists, travelers, advisors, and simple individuals he keeps terms with long after.

During his trip to Honduras in 2001, Foster funded ‘Escuela y Clinica Tony Foster’ which functions nowadays. In 2015, he gave a part of the funds from his paintings to support recovery efforts after the earthquake in Nepal.

Quotes from others about the person

• "In years to come, his tremendous dedication to his art, as well as the exceptional quality of his work, will be celebrated by individuals moved by art, geography, geology, ecology, sustainability, and more." James K. Ballinger, Director Emeritus, British Art Museum
  
  "Foster’s panoramas are not intended to create a powerful illusion of being in a remote place (as were, for example, the great landscapes of Frederic Church); rather he attempts to express the complexity – the fragility even – of the spirit of the place." Graham Beal, Former Director of the Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan
  
  "Foster’s art is a notation of the experience of seeing, not a mere inventory of appearances." Kenneth Baker, The San Francisco Chronicle art critic, and author
  
  "Each painting is a warning that the majesty we treasure could soon be lost." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., activist, environmental attorney, and author

Connections

Tony Foster married Ann Partington on August 10, 1968.

Spouse:

Ann Partington

References

• Tony Foster's Official Website
• Foster Art & Wilderness Foundation's Website
• Painting at the Edge of the World: The Watercolours of Tony Foster In addition to selections from Tony Foster's diaries, the book includes contributions by James K. Ballinger, Graham Beal, John Halkes, Duncan Robinson, Stephen Sparks, Mark Trahant, and Annie and Bill Vanderbilt.
  2008
• Worldviews: The Watercolor Diaries of Tony Foster In conjunction with an exhibition that first appeared at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle in fall 2000, this catalog features the watercolors and diary notes of Tony Foster.
  2001