Exploring Time: A Painter's Perspective by Tony Foster is showing at Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery in Truro from 8th July to 25th October; it will go on to the Royal Watercolour Society in London, the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio and other transatlantic venues.

Watercolours in the exhibition range from small and intimate to larger canvases which give a feel for the epic journeys Foster undertakes; they include maps, annotations and specimens, adding a tangible sense of storytelling.

For 45 years, Foster has set out from the village of Tywardreath bound for distant rainforests, mountains, and deserts, carrying his modest camping equipment and tiny tin of watercolours with him.

Of his Cornish home, Foster says: “It’s ironic that I leave this beautiful place to paint, when so many others come here to do just that. I’ve been all over the world, and I can honestly say I’ve never found anywhere more beautiful and varied than Cornwall. But I have an insatiable desire for exploration, and it’s an intrinsic part of my work. I always love coming back to Cornwall though – it’s my anchor.”

Taking landscape painting to the extreme, these ‘Journeys’ have bought Foster worldwide recognition; he is the only living British artist to have a museum in the U.S. dedicated to his work, has exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

The concept for this new exhibition, Exploring Time, was conceived while Foster was painting on Everest in 2007, when a monk handed him an ammonite fossil found near the peak of the mountain.

That Everest was once under the sea is well known, but holding the physical evidence in his hands had a profound impact on Foster, drawing his attention to the systems that create our natural world. 

Foster says: “Protecting wild places is the absolute imperative of our time. I believe that civilisation would be better measured, not by the area under landscaped lawns and driveways, but by the area we are prepared to leave alone.”

Using different frames of reference - Geological, Biological, Human and Fleeting – in Exploring Time the artist shows time from nature’s viewpoint, from the movement of mountains and rivers to the seasons of a Cornish hedge and the appearance of a rainbow.

Bryony Robins, Co-Director of Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, commented: “We’re extremely honoured to have Tony exhibiting with us, and have enjoyed working closely with the team from The Foster Museum in California to deliver the exhibition.”

She continued: “Tony has as much in common with natural history documentary makers as his fellow landscape painters and, like them, his work helps people appreciate and value the remote, majestic places he visits.”

Foster’s camping and painting equipment will be on display as part of the exhibition, including his easel which has been specially modified for easy transportation and painting in inhospitable places.

An extract of a film which has been made about Foster, Painting at the Edge, directed by David Schendel, will also feature in the exhibition, and the museum has a symposium and closing lecture planned where the artist will share stories of his travels.

Exploring Time is an extraordinary collection of artwork which celebrates the monumental landscapes this incredible artist and explorer has encountered, and threatens to make rewilding advocates of us all.

Exploring Time: A Painter's Perspective by Tony Foster. 8th July to 25th October. www.cornwallmuseum.org