Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River Exhibition to Open at the National Museum of Wildlife Art

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) will open Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River on Saturday, October 26, 2024. Artist Tony Foster became fascinated with the 50-million-year-old Green River fossilized fish when he first saw them in 1985. He conceived the idea to make a group of artworks about the Green River from these small, unique objects. Foster began his project in 2018, creating a major painting of Steamboat Rock and the horseshoe bend from his vantage point up a 400-foot cliff. In the summer of 2019, he took a rafting trip from the Gates of Lodore to Split Rock, creating five smaller paintings en route. From these initial works, he created this exhibition about, in Foster’s words: “this magnificent river.” The show will be on view through May 4, 2025, and is organized by The Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA.

“We are so pleased to have Tony Foster’s stunning watercolors at NMWA. Visitors from our community are familiar with the Green River, and they will recognize the places represented,” says NMWA’s Curator of Art Tammi Hanawalt, PhD. “Foster’s works speak to the beauty of the river, its vistas, and its ancient history in a way that will prompt others to explore for themselves.” All of the artworks in this exhibit depict the Green River.

The Green River is a major tributary of the Colorado River and runs through the states of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. With its headwaters in the Wind River Mountains, the Green River holds a special spot in the hearts of those living in Wyoming and near the Colorado Plateau, where the river has carved a breathtaking landscape of canyons. Foster’s watercolor paintings, with notes, diaries, maps, and symbolic objects, capture the majesty of this local landscape from its geological prehistory to the story of Native American and Western Settlement.

In addition to being an iconic landmark of the Western landscape, the Green River is also home to an abundance of regional wildlife forming an oasis in the high desert. The river corridor is vital for more than 300 species of regional and migrating wildlife, ranging from moose, pronghorn, elk, sage grouse, and trumpeter swans to short-horned lizards, beavers, kokanee salmon, and cutthroat trout.

A free public community opening celebration, “Watercolors & Waterways,” will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, November 1, at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Featured artist Tony Foster will speak in the Cook Auditorium at 5:30 p.m., followed by a short Q&A. Attendees can enjoy tacos for purchase from Street Tacos food truck and a watercolor craft. In addition to the community opening event on November 1, NMWA will host an Exclusive Members Meet & Greet with Foster at 4 p.m. on Friday.

Schedule of Exhibition Opening Events:

October 25, 11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Exhibition Sneak Peek of Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River (free for members or included in the cost of admission)
November 1, 4 – 5 p.m. Exclusive Members Meet & Greet with Tony Foster (Museum members only)
November 1, 5 – 7 p.m. Watercolors & Waterways – Community Exhibition Opening (free for the public)

Visit https://www.wildlifeart.org/events for all of the event details.

Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River is generously sponsored by Erika & Mick Cestia, Jean & Randy Foutch, Lightner Sams Foundation of Wyoming, Museum Volunteers and Docents in Memory of Ed Lavino, Maggie & Dick Scarlett, Marcia & Mike Taylor, Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, and the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund.