The Pando aspen tree of Utah is a wonder because it is a clonal colony of over 4,700 stems originating from a single tree and covering 106 acres, making it the largest tree in the world. How this tree must have taken time to spread from a single-stemmed individual to the forest it forms today. The Pando aspen is at least nine thousand years old, and some recent research estimates it to be 18,000 years old. Over its long life this is a tree that has survived many droughts and fires, and countless individual trunks will have died and been replaced by new ones springing up, but all being part of the same genetic individual. The aspen is also a tree that is a good indicator of the annual cycle. Tony has painted it showing the spectacular golden, quaking leaves rendering it not just a botanical curiosity but a beautiful vision of delight. I am happy to see a Nothofagus or the southern beech tree illustrated here. The genus Nothofagus tells us so much about the history of a changing world climate over time. This genus occurs today only in the southern hemisphere in southern South America and also in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. This tells us that once about 80–70 million years ago it covered a warmer Antarctica but later became separated in two areas of distribution through the climate change to a freezing Antarctica with an inhospitable environment for trees. Nothofagus in New Zealand tells us about a shorter cycle of time because every four to six years is a mast year when it produces a much larger crop of seeds. This causes a considerable increase in the population of introduced mammals such as rats, mice, and stoats. The population of mammals then declines in the intermediate years when there are many fewer seeds. There are so many stories of time and other interesting facts linked to these paintings by Tony so I hope that you will take time to enjoy and investigate biological time as you admire these magnificent works and then take some time to relax with nature in your local environment. We can see a year passing by in Tony’s four pictures of a Cornish hedge. The paintings and the artefacts below them show so well the annual rhythm of nature and behind the plants in these hedges hide so many small animals, birds, and insects upon which the local crops depend. Trees are a wonderful source of information about the history of time. So many species of trees have annual rings in their wood that tell us so much more than just their age. Some years the growth has been strong and in others weak, indicating the anomalies of each year’s climate, such as times of drought, fire, or excessive rainfall. Trees’ ring data has now become so important for the study of historic climate change. As the trees reach old age they often become spectacularly beautiful and sculpture-like, and this is so well depicted by Tony’s paintings of the bristlecone pine and the giant sequoia. The bristlecone pine, growing in the harsh environment of the Rocky Mountains, is believed to be the longest non-clonal living organism in the world. The oldest record is of a tree that is 5,050 years old. In that tree is hidden a record of time since the Sumerian and Minoan cultures and the building of the pyramids in Egypt. Different species of trees live for different lengths of time. An oak is much longer-lived than a beech, but Tony shows how both can mature in beautiful shapes and forms. The painting of the Cornish oak is accompanied by a series of leaves that take us through the seasons from spring to autumn, from the tender green leaves of spring to the old rusty red leaves of autumn. The ancient olive tree depicted by Tony must be over one thousand years old and over time it has developed a strikingly attractive architecture. How many people and generations have come to that tree annually to harvest the crop of juicy ripe olives that it will have faithfully produced each autumn? and began to engage as I can see time at work within and beneath his watercolors. Part of this reflects the subjects that he chooses to paint as they invariably spark my curiosity about what happened in time to create the scene that he captures. But Tony also paints many areas that are uniquely susceptible to human-induced change, either to a greater extent or at a more rapid pace. He captures well their time-driven beauty and, while the viewing of such loveli- ness touches me deeply, I also feel the grief of future loss. Biological Time Sir Ghillean Prance FRS VMH BRITISH BOTANIST FORMER DIRECTOR ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW It is a pleasure to write something for this exhibition by Tony Foster, a friend and an accomplished interpreter of nature and the environment through his beautiful works of art. Nowhere else is it better to see and experience time than in nature. I have spent much time amongst the indigenous tribal peoples of the Amazon rainforest and for many of them their calendar is based entirely on the cycles of nature. It may be when a tree produces its flowers or when a certain migratory bird passes through, but some- thing from nature will tell them that it is time to plant the seeds of their crops. Nature is both their calendar and their clock. The song of a particular bird or the croak of a frog may be at a specific time of day, and this will influence their daily routine. Tony Foster’s art shows his long connection with and intimate knowledge of nature, its times, and its seasons. The various artefacts that he picks up and places under each painting is a symbol of a person in touch with the environment around him. This is an exhibition where Tony takes us through time from a single year in a Cornish hedge to the oldest living tree. It is obvious from these paintings that Tony Foster spends much time with and in nature, enabling him to interpret it so well. This is most refreshing in an age where so many people have lost touch with the healing powers of nature. 99
