Trail, and that too seemed vast, I mean certainly not untouched because lots of people do that trail, but vast areas of pristine landscape. And that became the point at which I thought this is what my work should be about. GB | It’s serendipitous, in a way, perhaps, but I can’t help think about the fact that Thomas Cole, who founded the so-called Hudson River School, was born in Manchester and came to the States with his father when he was a young boy and created this school all based on wilder- ness that had such profound effects on American painting and then Thomas Moran, also born in Lancashire, went on to be the great painter at the end of the Hudson River School and paint the Grand Canyon, so you’re the third limey to engage deeply with the American wilderness. TF | Well, that’s a nice thought. I’m happy to be associated with the great masters, certainly Thomas Cole was already bemoaning the fact that the wilderness was being gobbled up by civilization and commerce. I’m not sure whether Thomas Moran thought the same, but he certainly seemed to celebrate the wildest places he could find. GB | Thomas Cole actually made the comment: “You see no ruined tower to tell of outrage.” TF | Fantastic. Tony Foster, Hero Stamps — David Hockney, Claes Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, 1978 (detail). Hand-printed silkscreen print on paper, textile, thread, buttons, spray paint, edition of 15 individual stamps. 16 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. / 41.9 x 34.9 cm Collection of the Artist GB | I was involved with the acquisition once of a painting by, I think, William Trost Richards, and the curator who was presenting it, he showed this beautiful picture of sea with some flotsam and some logs on the very calm sea, and then he showed a picture of what you would see when you turned round, and it looked like Coney Island. It was the edge of a wilderness but part of the tourist industry already. No one could say that about where you paint the wilderness. TF | Well, I don’t know. Everest is an incredibly heavily-touristed area in the Himalayas, but nonetheless, wonderful. A marvelous thing is that the mountain will still be there when we are all gone and forgotten. Although people talk about “conquering Everest” if they summit, I always think you never conquer a mountain like Everest, you simply manage to scramble up it. GB | I had occasion to write about your work once before, and I compared you to the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who accompanied Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied on his journey up the Mississippi and the Missouri in the 1830s. What was remarkable about Bodmer was his absolute accuracy. But they had people carrying all the equipment for him, and they rode horses and took the river boat up the Mississippi and the Missouri. You, however, do everything. You developed a sizable easel that folds up and paint from an amazingly small little pad of watercolours. Did these evolve quite quickly? Efficiencies for hiking? 15
