River Journey

Tony Foster’s hit Green River exhibition lands at the Booth Museum in Georgia.

After a successful run at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Tony Foster: Watecolour Diaries from the Green Riveris arriving at the Booth Western Art Museum on February 10 in Cartersville, Georgia. Based on field notes and journal entries from the distinguished British painter Tony Foster, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the artist’s methods of painting nature.

Tony Foster, Steamboat Rock from 400’ Up a Cliff, 2018, watercolor, 48 x 53”. © Tony Foster. Organized by the Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA.

The subject of Green River is no stranger to Western art. It has been painted repeatedly for more than 150 years. Thomas Moran was one of the first artists to depict the Green River’s majesty and today those works are some of his most cherished pieces that have homes in major museums and private collections. For Foster, the Green River offered an expansion of his exploration of American waterways. He studied the river on his 18th American journey, which ran from the headwaters in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming to its confluence with the Colorado River in Utah.

Tony Foster, Upheaval Dome from Green River, 1990, watercolor and graphite on paper, sand in glass tube, cork, sealing wax, map, 22 x 22”. © Tony Foster. Organized by the Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA.

Tony Foster, From Lower Green River Lake Looking South South East to Squaretop, 2022, watercolor and graphite on paper, Shpshone-Bannock glass bead necklace by Chastity Teton, map, 46 x 59”. © Tony Foster. Organized by the Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA.

“My friends sometimes question why, at over the age of 77, I continue to set out from my home in Tywardreath to erect my drawing board in yet another uncomfortable and unpredictable location. I’m not sure it’s a question I can answer, except that to pay attention to the nature of the world is what I believe I’m supposed to be doing,” Foster says. “If by showing my paintings I can bring the extraordinary beauty, interconnectedness and fragility of the planet we all inhabit to the attention of the public, then my efforts will not have been in vain.”

The exhibition continues through May 26. For more information, visit www.boothmuseum.org. —