Tony Foster Journey 18 | 2018-2023 | 8 artworks (16 paintings)

Watercolour Diaries from the Green River

Painting locations: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah

This Journey encompassed outdoor adventuring by river raft, canoe, and hiking, as well as a long interruption due to the pandemic. Tony’s development of his Green River Journey began with his long curiosity with the Green River Formation’s fossilized fish, leading to a visit to the Green in order to paint a major painting of Steamboat Rock onsite, followed by a raft trip and daily paintings along the way, the honor of an Artist Residency at the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and subsequent development of this stand-alone exhibition by Karen Brooks McWhorter, Collier-Read Director of Curatorial, Education, and Museum Services at Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

In June, 2019 Tony Foster and a handful of companions traveled down the Green River from the Gates of Lodore to Split Mountain. During that expedition Foster began a series of paintings that reflect the river as it exists today and reveal the river as a repository of ancient fossils, rich in history. Tony explains his interest in this unrecognized but essential waterway:

“Since I first came across one in 1985, I have been fascinated by the perfect 50-million-year-old Green River Formation fossilised fish. I often give them as gifts to my friends who are celebrating their 50th birthdays. It occurred to me that this magnificent river, on its extraordinary varied journey from the frozen granites of the Wind River Range to its confluence with the Colorado in the red sandstones of Canyonlands, would provide a rich source of inspiration for a medium-sized exhibition.”

Painting locations

• United States

  • Wyoming, Colorado, Utah

Painting the Green

This film short is included in the Watercolour Diaries from the Green River exhibition that is currently traveling in the US. Museums include Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ, Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, GA, National Museum of Wildlife, Jackson, WY and The Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA. A full-length documentary on Tony Foster is underway with an expected release in 2024.