Jerry N. Smith HEAD CURATOR AND CURATORIAL AFFAIRS DIRECTOR DAYTON ART INSTITUTE, OHIO “Still — in a way — nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven’t time — and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time…” — GEORGIA O’KEEFFE 1 Tony Foster’s art has always been about time, which we find in his work on multiple levels. We catch a brief moment in a painting that shows us a spectacular sunset, for example, or perhaps we can appreciate the extent of geological time inherent in his many landscapes Tony’s holistic approach to making art helps convey the personal time he takes to create each painting, which we discover by reading the included diary entries. He further adds topographical maps that pinpoint the location he has painted, sites that clearly require time to reach. The addition of souvenirs, whether actual or paintings of objects, further speak to time, whether through human, physical, geographical, or biological history of each place. This layered artistic expression offers multiple points of entry into his paintings and expands our understand- ing of Tony’s process, giving his work gravitas that goes beyond what most landscape paintings provide. By centralizing time as a theme in this, his latest project, Tony is asking us to look at his paintings through a fresh lens, a time-based lens, on the off chance that we missed what has always been there. Tony’s carefully painted watercolors of natural environments are invitations. They ask that we share in the artist’s time visiting wilderness areas around the world and gain knowledge about the unique qualities he finds in each. We vicariously take part in his travels to these remote locations, places often far removed from human habitation. Working this way for more than four decades, with “more than eight years sleeping in tents,” as he observes, Tony continues to make paintings of the regions he visits — rainforests and deserts, the tropics and the arctic, oceans, rivers, mountains and canyons. With his paintings, he asks us to join his grand undertakings and partake in his many adventures. In other words, while Tony’s works are visually pleasing, his approach isn’t merely about making pictures for people to admire. No, his practice is about communicating as fully as possible a message about the time he spends on his artistic Journeys with those willing to follow. I am fortunate to have known Tony for roughly twenty years now (which explains my casual use of “Tony” in this essay in place of the more scholarly “Foster”). I learned about his work through Jim Ballinger, when he was director and I was a curator at Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona.2 In 2006, the museum acquired one of Tony’s monumental watercolors of the Grand Canyon, which measures an impressive four-by-six feet.3 I had never encountered such detailed and refined watercolors at that scale before (I still haven’t), and the painting truly left an impression on me. Three years later, the museum hosted Searching for a Bigger Subject: Watercolour Diaries from Everest and the Grand Canyon, a show about the contrasting subjects of the Canyon’s depth and the soaring height of Everest, the desert heat of Arizona versus the extreme cold of Nepal and Tibet. Spending Time with Tony 1 Georgia O’Keeffe and William Einstein, “About Myself,” in Georgia O’Keeffe: Exhibition of Oils and Pastels, January 22–March 17, 1939, It Is Said, Series II (New York City, NY: An American Place, 1939). 2 Jim Ballinger serves as an advisor for The Foster Museum, Palo Alto, California. 3 Tony Foster, From Point Sublime Looking South South East - 6 Days Searching / 13 Days on Site, 2004 (p. 23) Foster paints From Point Sublime Looking South South East - 6 Days Searching / 13 Days on Site for his Searching for a Bigger Subject: Watercolour Diaries from Everest and the Grand Canyon Journey, September 2004. 22
