13 F or the past thirty years the inspiration of sublime, beautiful, and wild places has cap- tured the imagination of Tony Foster. He has painted the Arctic, arid lands and rain forests, land and water, but no place has focused his talents more than the complex environment of the American West. Painters began recording the West in 1820, first by accompany- ing scientific government surveys and, on the comple- tion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, as individual artists seeking to experience the unique people, flora, fauna, and topography of this vast region of the continental United States. As the twentieth century dawned, there was a growing number of resident artists living and working west of the Mississippi River. Foster, on the one hand, is unique as a foreign artist constantly roaming the vast regions of the American West; on the other hand, he continues an almost two-century-old tradition from both Europe and the United States. His project exploring sacred places of the West can be seen as a confluence of these traditions, his own experience working in the landscape for extended periods of time, and a new idea of what can make a location “sacred.” There has been an important landscape-painting tradition in Foster’s native country of England since the eighteenth century, which includes documentary Fostering an Artistic Tradition Foster draws influence … from the British tradition of walking treks, often accompanied by diaries that record the efforts of the writer or artist to carefully observe nature in order to personally understand the environment in depth. work, powerfully sublime images, and depictions of the absolute beauty of specific locales. J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) and John Constable (1776–1837) achieved towering leadership in the last two categories, as recent major exhibitions dedicated to their works attest, while more intimate documentary watercolors were produced by lesser-known artists such as Paul Sandby (1731–1809), Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), and John Sell Cotman (1782–1842). Foster draws influence from all these earlier painters as well as from the British tradition of walking treks, often accompanied by diaries that record the efforts of the writer or artist to carefully observe nature in order to personally understand the environment in depth. When looking at Foster’s largest watercolors, often four by six feet and mostly executed on-site, one can feel the awe of the Grand Canyon or Yosemite while at the same time being able to read his notes about his experiences and personal observations while making that specific picture, written in pencil on the sheet. He often leaves in the picture, obscured by pigment, his notes
