Rambling with conviction: select works of John Foster (1934-2022)

Discipline  Drawing, Painting

Since John’s death, his three children are delighted that Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Hestercombe House and Gardens and Somerset Museums are accessioning some of the best examples of his Somerset landscapes, and also some of his 1960s graphic art. His work deserves to be widely enjoyed. 

As well as seeing examples of John’s work for yourself, visitors to this exhibition will be able to dip into some of our research. We have sought to record and reconstruct the full span of our father’s life in art, which was the place this reserved man, absorbed in and by the landscape around him, could best often express himself. ‘It is important to ramble with conviction’, he told his friend, the York artist John Hatfield.

Trained at Middlesbrough College of Art and then the Slade, John Foster’s Guardian ‘Other Lives’ obituary can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/17/john-foster-obituary

He taught fine art at Plymouth College of Art (1962-64), Lincoln College of Art (1964-69), Kidderminster (1969-72) and Somerset College of Art (1972-1990). He was active in retirement to 2007, focusing on landscapes in Somerset (primarily what he could walk to) and Cornwall, with some work relating to visits to France and Scotland. Work in Egypt in the 1950s, as part of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, deeply influenced his later work, particularly in the 1960s. His graphic phase, spanning the 1960s and 1970s, was striking.

As artist Robin Plummer observed for a 1997 exhibition at Coombs Contemporary in London, ‘He had to be persuaded [to exhibit]. He does not push himself forward. Neither he nor his work is strident or demonstrative and his painting would be easy to miss in large exhibitions like the R.A. It looks on the surface conventional, landscape, seascape, still life, painted with an eye for colour and a sensitivity to the medium he has chosen, but it is the symbolic value which he gives to the subject and the intensity, passion and depth of his vision that makes it unconventional and truly original’.

Website https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/17/john-foster-obituary

Venue address: Hurstone Studios, Hurstone Farm, Waterrow, Taunton TA42AT
Directions: From B3227 head toward Bampton. On entering Waterrow take the narrow lane by the bridge (opposite side of the river to the Rock Inn) where there will be a sign towards Hurstone. If using your GPS/Satnav Postcode TA42AT will take you to Hurstone’s gate. 
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Parking on site
Toilets Available
Refreshments: Tea and coffee available
Dogs Allowed: Please note that dogs should be kept on leads

Accessibility further information: Please note that being a farmyard there are some uneven surfaces. We have, where possible, provided assisted access for those with mobility concerns; by providing a route via a path on an incline and just one step into studios.

Other artists at the venue: Chrys Allen, Lucy Cooper
Other artists in the parish: Jane Mowat, Lily Mo Browne