Exploring Time: A Painter's Perspective, a watercolour landscape exhibition in London

This new exhibition presents over 50 small to large-scale watercolours painted en plein air over many years, sharing the artist's perspective on wilderness and rewilded nature from around the world.

“The work is all about trying to bring to people's attention the extraordinary nature of the world we live in, its fragility and its complexity, and hoping to evoke a sense that we should protect everything we've got.” Tony Foster

‘Exploring Time’ - A Painter's Perspective is a new exhibition from Tony Foster. The inspiration behind this series of works came while painting on Everest in 2007, a monk handed him an ammonite fossil found near the peak of the mountain, and Foster was stunned as he realised that finding a fossil of a marine animal that died out some 66 million years ago provided visible evidence that Everest was once under the sea.

Tony Foster (born 1946) is an English painter known for his painting expeditions into the world’s great wildernesses. He has spent time in hundreds of places to observe untouched nature, including Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, Borneo, Greenland and Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. He creates large scale watercolour works en plein air that closely observe the remote natural world, relatively untouched by humans.

His expeditions from Everest to the Grand Canyon and the ocean floor are personal watercolour diaries, reflecting on the concept and experience of wilderness. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and the USA including at the Yale Center for British Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC. The Foster Museum in Palo Alto, California is dedicated to his work.

EVENTS PROGRAMME
Events are free, booking is recommended - thefoster.org/rsvp

Saturday 8 November 2025, 2.30 - 3.30pm
A tour of the exhibition with artist Tony Foster and the Artistic Director of The Foster Museum, Kristin Poole. The artist discusses a selection of works and how he visualised the concept of time.

Thursday 20 November 2025, 6.30 - 8pm
Painting the Concept of Time, an illustrated lecture by artist Tony Foster. The artist will talk about his practice, his interest in wild places and the theme of time, followed by a Q and A

Thursday 4 December 2025, 6.30 - 8pm
Time and Place - A Conversation between artist Tony Foster and Nicholas Crane, an author, geographer and presenter of 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 5 December 2025, 2.30 - 3.30pm
Tour of the exhibition with artist Tony Foster and curatorial advisor Tessa Jackson OBE, selecting particular works to discuss the artist's theme and approach.

Category: Arts | Visual Arts | Galleries / Art