Exploring Time - Tony Foster's watercolour landscapes at the RWS Gallery

There’s an amazing exhibition of very impressive watercolour paintings by Tony Foster at the RWS Gallery in Whitcomb Street. 

It's quite unlike anything else I've ever seen before in an art gallery.

For more than 45 years now English artist Tony Foster has worked in the World’s wildernesses - mountains and canyons, rainforests and deserts, the Arctic and the Tropics. Travelling slowly - on foot or by canoe or raft, and carrying his painting and camping equipment he makes his paintings in response to what he finds on his journeys.

“Exploring Time” in plein air painting treks through geological and biological time across various wilderness locations on different continents. 

This new exhibition presents over fifty watercolours painted en plein air over seventeen years, sharing the artist's reflections on the complexity of time and its impact upon the planet. Each includes notes from the artist’s experiences as well as maps and objects relevant to its location.

Divided into Geological Time, Biological Time, Human Time and Fleeting Moments, the paintings explore how time has sculpted and affected our planet. From Colorado to Tibet, the Galapagos and Cornwall, the works celebrate the wonder of nature, highlighting the importance of leaving areas of the world undisturbed.

A view of one of the basement galleries

His watercolour paintings painted plein air over 17 years are phenomenal. 

Some are of some absolutely amazing vistas in wilderness country. Some are of things he finds and records en route when trekking - which also record the small things in places in a unique way.

• You can see some of my photos of this paintings in my Facebook Post
• You can see a record of his exhibitions over the years on his website

The resulting paintings are a visual record of what he encounters on his journey: not just the landscape, but flora and fauna, notes, souvenirs and anecdotes.

A record of small objects - leaves, fruits, birds, eggs, feathers, twigs etc
found in a specific place on is travels

He also has an extraordinarily impressive CV of exhibitions across the USA and UK and coverage in articles by very many different publications. 

This exhibition will be embarking on a tour of the US from 2026 to 2028.

Approach to Drawing and Painting + Equipment

His approach to recording by drawing and painting what he sees is quite unlike virtually all landscape artists. This is his plein air method

He does not use photography or sketches but makes his paintings on site, often in the most difficult and uncomfortable circumstances. Sometimes a large-scale work (up to 8ft x 4 ft / 244 cms x 122 cms!) will take more than three weeks on site before it is sufficiently resolved to roll into its aluminium tube to be completed in his studio in Cornwall. 

Check out his painting equipment he takes with him 

Tony Foster's very lightweight painting equipment for very large paintings

Once he has found his painting site, he erects a makeshift board as an easel. When working in freezing conditions, he adds gin to his painting water to stop it icing-up. 

Events Programme

There are three remaining events at the Galleries which I'm sure will interest some landscape and especially plein air artists. I'm probably going to go back for one of them - and to buy a catalogue which I forgot to go back for after my feet started hurting on my "four exhibitions on one day" jaunt last Thursday.

• Thursday 20th November, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm: 

Painting the Concept of Time: an illustrated lecture by artist Tony Foster. 
An illustrated lecture by Tony Foster, where the artist will talk about his practice, his interest in wild places and the theme of time, followed by a Q&A

• Thursday 4th December, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Time and Place - A Conversation between artist Tony Foster and author Nicholas Crane
Nicholas Crane is an author, geographer and presenter of many documentary films, including the BBC 2 series 'Great British Journeys' and 'Coast'. Tony Foster and Nicholas Crane will explore why geography matters, sharing experiences and common interests.

• Friday 5th December, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Tour of the exhibition with artist Tony Foster and curatorial advisor Tessa Jackson OBE

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